This is the question that The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI) is seeking to answer. 

The CEI Vision

Funded by a gift from The Goizueta Foundation in late 2019, the center seeks to bridge the gap between vision and reality, theory and practice.

The center focuses on three pillars of activity: developing entrepreneurial skills and new venture creation; preparing for early-stage investing and growing an understanding of capital formation; and enhancing creativity and innovation capabilities for organizations of all types.

“Think of it as a funnel,” Brian Cayce, managing director of the center, explains. “At the top of the funnel, our students or other startup entrepreneurs have these early-stage ideas. We want the center to support in various points along their journey with a continuum of programming and courses that will accelerate the likelihood of success with their ventures, all the way down to potentially securing investment from our student-run seed and venture funds. At the same time, some may also jump on the funnel at later stages, through exposure and opportunities we are providing for them to collaborate with early-stage investors in supporting startups.”

Delivering Transformational Experiences

In business schools across the country, there is a growing demand for opportunities to learn the real-world mechanics of disrupting and improving industries, as well as building new ones.

“Entrepreneurship and innovation are increasingly important, both for those interested in developing a creative mindset to shake things up and manage innovations within companies of all types to those interested in founding, joining or investing in new ventures,” says Jill Perry-Smith, academic director of the CEI. “We are proud of our suite of programs and courses that serve both interests.”

The center has expanded rapidly to meet these needs. As of 2023, the center already has 15 mission aligned courses; 10 programs offered; upward of 100 startups engaged; over 20 seed and venture funds involved; and over 500 students participating in program and course offerings. 

Many of the opportunities the center has in place aim to open the doors wider to historically excluded groups. One such program is the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, a $1 million student-run venture fund focused on empowering underrepresented founders. Each year, students involved in the fund act in the investor role with input from faculty and an esteemed advisory board. To date, the fund has made total investment commitments of $170K into seven companies in seven different industries in six cities. AACSB International, the world’s largest business education alliance that connects educators, students, and businesses, recently honored the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund with its 2023 “Innovations that Inspire” award recognizing institutions that create new value for a continuously evolving business world and global society.

Like many of the center’s initiatives, the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund is run in the context of a class.

“In addition to benefiting each founder and company, this process also provides students unprecedented access and exposure to the world of venture capital–not to mention potential job opportunities,” says JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and co-lead faculty advisor for the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund.

Another popular program is the annual Emory Entrepreneurship Summit, which provides Goizueta students a chance to network, hear from successful entrepreneurial alumni and learn from entrepreneurs. This year’s summit featured Stuart Weitzman as the keynote speaker, whose shoe line has been worn by the likes of Beyoncé, Kate Middleton, and Taylor Swift. The culmination of the annual event is the “Pitch the Summit” competition, in which students present their own aspiring startups to a panel of distinguished entrepreneurial judges. The judges select one lucky and hardworking recipient to take home a grand prize of $10,000, among the $25,000 awarded across a variety of startup categories.

“Each year, the summit gets exponentially better,” says Andrea Hershatter, senior associate dean and BBA program director. “Student attendance this year was at an all-time high, the track records of our entrepreneurs were off the charts, and the traction and potential of the pitched ventures was the most evolved it has ever been.”

The Emory Startup Launch Accelerator, run in partnership with The Hatchery, Emory Center for Innovation, prepares early-stage founders to take on the challenges of launching a new and successful business.. This immersive 8-week program pulls from evidence-based tools and processes to offer hands on workshops and challenges, allowing young companies to quickly test and tweak their business models to reflect consumer feedback. The center selected a dozen companies for their 2023 cohort; businesses ranged from sustainable farming education to task management software. The most recent cohort saw several companies go on to either raise external capital or find spots in the leading global accelerators, and the center strives to support the placement opportunities for these participants after the sessions have ended.

“The 12 founders selected for the Startup Launch Accelerator represent a diverse range of industries and are at various early stages of their entrepreneurial journeys,” says Christy Brown, one of the center’s key entrepreneurs-in-residence. “Their passion, innovation, and commitment to scaling their companies with rigor and strategic goals around growth are truly inspiring. These founders were selected based on overall ability to scale and the current timeline of their companies.”

Another key initiative, the RAISE Forum (Retaining and Accelerating Investment in the Southeast at Emory), connects in-revenue startups and top-tier investors from across the Southeast to foster collaboration within the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and ensures that the best startups can stay local. The 12th RAISE Forum—which took place in November of last year—gathered close to 100 participants, who enjoyed the opportunity to exchange strategic plans, engage in discussion groups, and explore potential business opportunities.

“This program fulfills one of our key goals of keeping companies in the region, along with showcasing a diverse group of founders and companies, as about 30 percent of RAISE C-level execs are underserved,” says Charles Goetz, senior lecturer of organization & management at Goizueta Business School and RAISE Forum co-founder.

Supporting these activities and learning vital lessons along the way, student fellows add tremendous value to the center.

 “The fellowship—which includes undergraduate and graduate students—allows students to get more exposure to different programmatic opportunities, working with partners across Atlanta, sometimes farther afield,” says Cayce. “They get the opportunity to travel and participate in conferences with support from the center. At the same time, they help to design, cultivate and curate these programs. They go on to be amazing ambassadors for Goizueta Business School.”

Expanding Impact

The center plans to streamline and enrich its current programming, while continuing to generate new programs, many of which focus on building collaborative webs between Goizueta students and the various other stakeholders in and around the field of entrepreneurship.

For example, the center is gearing up to take advantage of the robust biomedical community in and around Emory’s campus.

“My goal is to build tools that can bring visibility to what’s happening across different hubs of innovation within the Emory University ecosystem, and then think through meaningful ways that the business school students can plug into those and build value for Emory across the board,” says Cayce.

Another prospective program tentatively titled “EmHERy Ventures,” which borrows its framework from the successful Peachtree Minority Venture Fund and is geared toward women entrepreneurs and founders, is also in the works: “This is an area where we would use the same plumbing and wiring of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, but find support—from the school and beyond—to get this initiative with its unique focus launched,” shares Cayce.

Also in the planning stages, the center is looking into an initiative focused on corporate venture capital.

“Corporate venture capital is a subset of venture capital in which corporations take the early risk in startups. In the last five to seven years this activity has really grown and become more sophisticated,” he shares. “It’s a huge growth opportunity for the business school.”

Cayce says we should stay tuned, as there are even more programs in the works which mingle Goizueta students with community partners to spur innovation and investment.

While the center researches the best methods to help nurture the vision of students, Cayce himself is dreaming of what Goizueta can do for the community overall.

“What excites me is to think about what that portfolio of contribution to the community could look like in the next three to five years.”

Immersion in entrepreneurship and innovation is central to Goizueta’s business education. The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation takes a multi-faceted approach to engage students and business owners through interaction with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and ecosystem collaborators, Pitch the Professor events, the annual Emory Entrepreneurship Summit, focused coursework, a Startup Launch Accelerator, venture capital opportunities through the RAISE Forum and the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, and other entrepreneurial programming. Learn more here.

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Each year, PMVF students acting in the investor role, along with faculty and advisory board input, hold the Spring Showcase at The Hatchery on campus to announce new investments. To date, the fund has made total investment commitments of $170K into seven companies in seven different industries in six cities. In the first round for the 2021-2022 academic year, the investment process began with commitments to CommunityX, Ecotone Renewables, and FundStory. Just this past spring, investments were committed to Arch, Chezie, ConConnect, and Tuyyo.

JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and a Business & Society Institute faculty advisor, guides the PMVF’s academic curriculum with Jill Perry-Smith, senior associate dean, strategic initiatives, and academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, and Juanita Velez, adjunct professor and senior manager diversity, equity, and inclusion operations for Delta Airlines. In addition, Brian Cayce recently joined Goizueta Business School as Managing Director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Cayce brings 17 years of venture capital experience to the team having founded the early-stage impact-focused funds of Gray Ghost Ventures.

Nurturing Future Investors and Entrepreneurs

“Through directed curriculum and classwork, students gain the real-world analysis skills required to make informed investment decisions,” Kurish says. With an industry agnostic approach, “The fund follows a holistic research process during which the students operate in the role of investors. Investors not only learn about the company in front of them, but also about the larger industry and its risks and upside.”  

Student participants come from a wide range of degree programs, including Goizueta’s undergraduate Bachelor of Business Administration program, the school’s multiple MBA programs, and Emory University’s law school. This diversity excites Kurish. “We like the fact that we’ve got students from various academic programs involved. Add to that their unique cultural perspectives and age differences and we all benefit from the interaction.”

A richness and experiential value come to students by what they bring as individuals to each discussion. This sharing develops a collective holistic appreciation for the needs and desires of underrepresented founders.

JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and Business & Society Institute faculty advisor

The PMVF documents investments of entrepreneurial funding ranging from $5-50K through a simple agreement for future equity. Kurish explains, “Most common are seed stage investments of $15-$30K. The goal for these investments is to gain allocation into a financing round led by institutional investors.”

In addition to benefiting each founder and company, this process also provides students unprecedented access and exposure to the world of venture capital–not to mention potential job opportunities.

JB Kurish

To educate and empower founders, the fund offers resources and tools such as Cap table simulator, talent locators, pitch deck examples and basics, and financial modeling for startups. As an educational partner to founders, Goizueta will continue to expand its impact for growth. Kurish notes, “In the future we will incubate their success with even more educational and professional networking opportunities.”  

Changing the Funding Narrative 

Each fall, student class members and leaders are selected for participation in the fund activities. Past student participants continue to support the fund by taking part in evaluative and processing activities in the fall. These fall activities pave the way for the main thrust of student engagement in spring.  

During the 2023 spring class, the fund received over 50 applications. From this applicant pool, managing partners screened over 100 deals and engaged in preliminary due diligence on over 50 of them. To further narrow the pipeline of potential investment, the PMVF team conducted another round of deep due diligence on 10 deals. The investment committee then reviewed the final five deals and ultimately selected four companies to receive PMVF investment. 

JB Kurish

After extensive research, interviews, and analysis by the PMVF team, the following companies received investment commitments through the fund in the 2022-2023 academic year: 

• Chezie, Co-Founder and CEO is Toby Egbuna, COO is Dumebi Egbuna 18BBA 
• ConConnect, Co-Founder and CEO is Andre Peart 
• Tuyyo, Founder & CEO is Stefanie Garcia Turner 21EMBA 
• Arch, CEO & Co-Founder is Gabriel Huertas del Pino and Adam Mutschler 

It is an honor to receive an investment from Emory University’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund. As an alumna of Goizueta Business School, this investment is a full circle moment as I began working on TUYYO while I was receiving my Executive MBA in 2020-2021. This investment will further support TUYYO’s growth in new retail locations across the United States and assist in our efforts to provide clean ingredient, Latin-inspired products to the LatinX community and beyond.

Tuyyo Foods Founder/CEO Stefanie Garcia Turner 21EMBA 

To carry on the rich tradition of investing in and supporting underrepresented founders, the new managing partners of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund have been named. Brandon Best 24MBA, Sumo Desai 24MBA, Savannah Holmes 24MBA, Brandon Jacobs 24BBA, Madeline Ledford 24MBA, Kevin Liu 24EvMBA, and Benedict Owanga 24JD will all lead for the coming year.  

PMVF Wins the AACSB Innovations that Inspire 2023 Award 

AACSB International, a global nonprofit, is the world’s largest business education alliance that connects educators, students, and businesses across the world. Since 1916, the organization has been committed to creating the next generation of leaders. As part of its advocacy outreach in more than 100 countries and territories, AACSB selects 25 Innovative Business Schools of Tomorrow that drive new value for stakeholders.  

Kurish shared, “In the words of AACSB, Goizueta’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund ‘was one of 25 institutions that demonstrate how AACSB member institutions are creating new value for a continuously evolving business world and global society.’”  

Learn more about the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund and access founder applications.  

Follow fund news on Twitter @Peachtree_Fund and LinkedIn @PeachtreeMinorityVentureFund.  

Read more about the prestigious AACSB International award here. 

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When Entrepreneurs Share Their Failures, Early-Stage Founders Benefit from the Experience

In an Instagram-perfect world that seems obsessed with success, Christy Brown is more than happy to talk about her failures. In fact, she’s proud of them. “I have founded and exited four of my own companies,” says Brown. “I’ve had a lot of successes, but the way I can help early-stage founders the most is from my failures. In my opinion, that’s where we learn.”

A serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience, Christy Brown is now an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) for The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. She lends her expertise to Goizueta students who dream of starting their own businesses, and she gives it to them straight.

“All entrepreneurs think that our ideas are amazing, but that does not mean that anyone is going to buy it. I give founders the tools to really ensure that there is consumption for their idea,” says Brown. “My interest in working with founders is focused on how to save them time and money and on customer conversations and customer discovery. Entrepreneurs must have organic conversations with potential customers to determine if anyone even cares about the problem they’re solving.” Read the full story.

Goizueta Students Travel to Norway & Explore Social, Cultural, and Geopolitical Landscape

To prepare students to become principled leaders in an interconnected world, Goizueta developed Global Experiential Modules (GEMs), which are delivered multiple times per year for MBA students.

“Empathy and cultural competence are critical in the development of principled leadership. Goizueta’s Global Experiential Modules align with our strategic priorities to deliver truly distinctive lessons on business and its role in service to humanity,” says Brian Mitchell, associate dean for Goizueta Global Strategy and Initiatives. “These are so much more than just ‘trips’ because the experiences are contextualized by experts in history and culture.” Discover more about GEMs.

Students and Speakers Unpack Artificial Intelligence in Media and Entertainment Industry at the 2022 MSBA Conference

At the fifth annual Goizueta Business Analytics Conference, topics included AI and machine learning in decision making, media personalization, and audience targeting. Industry experts in the crowd were also Goizueta alumni, including women data scientists from the MSBA program who participated in the alumni panel, “MSBA Women in Media and Entertainment.” The women spoke about what drew them to their roles and this industry, advice for graduating students, and what it’s like to be a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field of data science.

“The MSBA program equipped me with strong data science and analytics skills, and it also enhanced my problem-solving skills. The conference was a great chance to learn and discuss opportunities and challenges in the media and entertainment industry,” says Lancy Mao 18MSBA, business data scientist at Google. “As we are exploring better personalization in a more privacy-preserving way, AI and machine learning have become more important.” Learn more about what’s new in AI and data analytics.

Certified B Corps: Students Explore Business as a Force for Good

With more than 5,300 certified B Corps globally and rising, “We are educating students about B Corps by taking part in the movement,” says B Corp Learning Lab instructor Brian Goebel 09MBA, managing director of the Business & Society Institute. “It’s a win-win all around.”

The B Corp Learning Lab and a growing number of other social and environmental impact activities (such as the Start:ME accelerator program, Net Impact Club, Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, and Grounds for Empowerment) demonstrate Goizueta’s strategic belief that business and society together can deliver a more equitable and sustainable world. When businesses and business education shift, other stakeholders benefit, too.

“The B Corp certification is a powerful and transparent way for companies to verify their social and environmental commitments,” says Wes Longhofer, academic director of the Business & Society Institute. “Because the assessment process is so tangible, students get hands-on experience on how companies can both measure their impact and set meaningful targets and goals. It also fits the educational mission of our Institute of putting theory into practice.” Dig into the process in the full story.

Inaugural Emory Real Estate Conference Draws Influential Leaders for a Sold-Out Crowd

Goizueta Business School hosted the inaugural Emory Real Estate Conference for more than 550 real estate professionals and investors. The keynote address was delivered by Sam Zell, founder, and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a self-made billionaire who serves as chairman of several companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to a panel discussion on “Capital Market Insights: Trends and Disruptors,” Colleen Keating, CEO, FirstKey Homes, offered her perspective on the rise of single-family rentals (SFR) as an asset class.

One of the nation’s top real estate markets, Atlanta has seen significant growth over the last few decades. Given Emory University’s location and the growing renown of Goizueta’s 15-year-old real estate program, the conference’s student co-chairs John Schellhase 23EvMBA and Bernard “Bern” Clevens 22MBA saw hosting an Emory and Goizueta-branded conference as a great way to unite real estate professionals, serve the greater Atlanta community, and showcase the Emory and Goizueta brands. Gain more real estate insight.

Executive MBA Ranks 6th in Nation by Financial Times

The Executive MBA program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School continued to climb in the rankings, recognized as the 6th ranked EMBA program nationwide, according to a recent Financial Times report. Delivering on its promise to provide world-class educational experiences and opportunities, the program also garnered notable gains internationally, rising to 36th in the world.

At Goizueta, the Executive MBA program provides the breadth of business acumen and depth of expertise that a seasoned professional or current executive needs to drive organizational value.

Jackie Conner, associate dean of the Executive MBA program

“It offers a personal, deeply immersive, and hands-on experience that expands an individual’s leadership capacity,” says Conner. Read the full rankings report.

Goizueta Supports Active-Duty Service Members and Veterans with Student Scholarships, Fellowships, and Public Service Award

“One of the most important aspects and strengths of the Goizueta military and veteran community is how they support one another through their transition, MBA journey, and pursuit of their goals,” says Ken Keen, Lieutenant General, Retired, U.S. Army and Goizueta associate dean for leadership development and senior lecturer of Organization & Management who also serves as Goizueta’s military advisor. “We seek to make it personal and help every veteran as they apply their skills and leadership experiences gained through military service toward seeking careers in the business world.”

“Goizueta does a great job of making the veterans feel valued,” says Goizueta Military Scholarship Recipient Matthew Ball 23MBA. Ball served as squad leader for the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment with six combat deployments across Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. At Goizueta, he leads the Goizueta Veterans Club for 2022-2023, which has 18 full-time MBA students and 21 Executive MBA and Evening MBA students for a total of nearly 40 active members. “To me it is even more impactful that donors want to take part in assisting the educational growth and career advancement of our student vets.” Learn more about Goizueta’s commitment to veterans.

Goizueta Business School Faculty Rank in the Top Two Percent of Scholars Worldwide

Seven faculty members of Goizueta Business School were honored in Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists, a prestigious worldwide ranking of researchers for their career-long impact.

The study, published in the journal PLoS Biology, is based on the bibliometric information contained in Elsevier’s Scopus database that includes more than 160,000 researchers from the more than 8 million scientists considered to be active worldwide, taking into account 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields. Read more about our esteemed Goizueta faculty.

Goizueta Trailblazers Pave the Way for Growth and Opportunity in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

“Our history is illuminating,” says Jill Perry-Smith, senior associate dean of strategic initiatives. Perry-Smith is charged with leading the school’s DEI strategies and notes, “It is important to recognize trailblazers and have an opportunity to think through the events of the country and world as they collide with our local history.”

In recognition of our journey, Goizueta created Black History at Goizueta, a timeline of significant milestones throughout our institution’s history. In 2020, Goizueta launched the Common Read program, providing a forum for self-education and a safe space for honest dialogue for those seeking to be allies. Last fall, Goizueta launched the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund through The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation—a million-dollar venture capital fund focused on empowering underrepresented founders. In December, Goizueta announced the addition of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion concentration for Full-Time MBA programs. And earlier this year, Goizueta announced the winners of the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case competition, engaging leading students to examine how companies can address racial injustice within their organizations. Learn more about Goizueta trailblazers.

Do Grammy-Winning Pop Artists Take More Creative Risks Than Their Runners-Up?

Taylor Swift has had a career marked by an evolution in sound and style. Swift emerged into the industry a country star and was later rebranded a pop icon. She’s gone on to explore alternative rock and indie folk sounds.

Research by Giacomo Negro, professor of Organization & Management and professor of Sociology (by courtesy), suggests Grammy award wins may be credited as the catalyst for these changes. Gain more insight from this faculty research.

Emory Business digs into stories that matter. Keep reading to meet the change makers, the trend setters, and the leading influencers shaping business today.

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His MBA classes began online as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.

“A very nebulous, scary, uncertain time period,” he recalls. “I came in knowing I wanted to do health care strategy. I had skills and abilities, but I didn’t have the frameworks or confidence to differentiate myself. I was trying to find the right fit and felt like business school would be the launching pad.”

His instincts proved correct. At Goizueta, Mirza developed leadership and structured approaches to innovating that gave him confidence, especially in his creativity.

“I think of Humza as a passionate, socially-minded student, who weaves the caring gained from his health care experience with a naturally extroverted nature to make meaningful connections,” says Robert Kazanjian, academic director for The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management.

Faculty mentorship and student competition were keys to Mirza’s growth. The close-knit culture gave him working relationships with professors, “so I could see not only how they think but also how they act, communicate, and operate as consummate professionals and all-around amazing people,” Mirza says. “They’re offering guidance even when they may not come off like they are.”

Leading Opportunities for Innovation

Through a competitive selection process, Mirza became one of the first managing partners of the $1 million Peachtree Minority Venture Fund (PMVF), which made its first investments – focused on empowering underrepresented founders – a month before he graduated. It is the first student-run VC fund focused on equity investments into underrepresented founder ventures and ventures that expand venture funding for underrepresented business owners among U.S. universities.

Mirza also organized the Healthcare Futuring Competition 2040 in his role as Goizueta Healthcare Association’s vice president of conferences and competitions. In association with Reneé Dye, associate professor in the practice of organization and management, the competition tasked students with developing scenarios of what the U.S. health care system might look like in 2040.

“Going back to his first semester in August of 2020 when class delivery was largely remote, Humza was always among the most engaged students in my core finance class; his questions and contributions were extremely relevant,” says JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance.

“Working with Humza in his role as a managing partner in the PMVF and my role as co-professor in the PMVF applied course, I have an enhanced appreciation of his skills. Humza is a great communicator who has the ability to bring his knowledge and passion together to move people and organizations forward. He has impressed both at the beginning and end of his time here at Goizueta.”

As an associate at DaVita, one of the country’s largest providers of kidney care services, Mirza is learning to lead within a company that promotes patient-centered innovations that are part of integrated care. “Being able to be creative and forward-thinking in an environment where I potentially can help people in need,” Mirza describes his role. “Healthcare innovation is everything that I love and that interests me.”  

His message to incoming students is one of encouragement.

Really swing for the fences. This is one of the few times in your life that you can
do that and have the safety net from your peers and faculty. You can pivot really quickly at Goizueta, so take the opportunity to challenge yourself and stretch your horizons and comfort zones. Beyond just the world-class education and opportunities you get from the school, you can develop tremendous internal fortitude, grit, and resiliency that will greatly benefit your personal and professional development.

Humza Mirza 22MBA

Learn more about Peachtree Minority Venture Fund and other innovative programming of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

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An integral part of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the $1 million fund recently announced its first round of capital opportunities.

An award of $25,000 was granted to CommunityX, a mobile-first social app that unites like-minded change-makers around shared causes. The app leverages traditional social media algorithmic thinking to be able to connect people and calls to action, such as petitions, events, donations, and more. CommunityX also has received funding from TechStars.

“When our team found out that we were going to be a part of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund portfolio, we were very excited for all the obvious reasons,” said founder and CEO Chloë Cheyenne, who describes herself as a multiracial young woman with Chicago, Ill. roots.

Hearing firsthand from all of the Goizueta staff, students, and founders about how much thought and intention went into building this fund, we are totally humbled to be a part of this community.

Chloë Cheyenne, CEO of CommunityX

Ecotone Renewables of Pittsburgh, Pa. earned a $15,000 award and is the maker of Soil Sauce, a liquid plant fertilizer organically produced from food waste. By making sustainable food and agriculture systems more accessible and prevalent outside the industrial scale, Ecotone is dedicated to building the tools necessary to empower communities to redevelop and grow through sustainable food practices.

“We produce renewable energy through the extraction of biomass, as well as an organic, sustainable fertilizer,” said Ecotone Renewables CFO Elliott Bennett. “That fertilizer is our main focus as we look to empower communities. This is part of a sustainable form of agriculture because it allows new plants to grow. And really, it gives people the ability to be sustainable in the way that they plant, whether it’s on a farm or the garden.”

Elliott Bennett, CFO of Ecotone Renewables

An award of $15,000 went to Atlanta-based FundStory, which helps finance teams access and manage non-dilutive capital. This type of capital does not require a business owner to give up equity or ownership and is often essential to launching a startup. FundStory offers all-in-one workflow management software to help finance teams evaluate risk, automate funding options, and manage financing into maturity.

“I’m really appreciative for the opportunity and the commitment, and we’re excited,” FundStory CEO and co-founder Bobby Gilbert said. “We like to think of it as the operating system for not a lot of capital. Entrepreneurs don’t wake up and decide they’re going to go into debt. It’s a process from start to finish. Prior to funding through us, they have to map out a plan, choose the right partner and manage financing into maturity. We set out to build a FundStory with a thesis of helping founders for each stage of their journey.” 

Bobby Gilbert, CEO and co-founder of FundStory

Students Reflect on Experiential Learning and Key Takeaways from Funding Award Process

The three entrepreneurs spoke at an April 20 reception to an audience of Goizueta Business School alumni, faculty, administration, staff, and the students who operated the fund as managing partners and associates. The reception was hosted by the five managing partners who operate the fund alongside teams of senior associates and analysts.

“We went through a lot of debate, and at the end of the day we made the most informed decisions we could,” said Humza Mirza 22MBA, the fund’s managing partner for marketing and recruiting. “Did we get the right answer? Only time will tell. We are all taking a lot of learnings from getting the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund started.”

The 24 participating MBA, EvMBA, BBA, and Law School students received academic credit for their work in the semester-long class. The course, part of a new DEI concentration for full-time MBA students, focuses on understanding factors that contribute to the gap in venture capital funding to underrepresented minority entrepreneurs and how this challenge might best be addressed.

The students formed into six teams, each assigned to find minority-owned startups in one sector: consumer products and goods, energy, fintech, healthcare technology, information technology, and manufacturing.

“Each of our teams worked tirelessly to make sure we have a strong pipeline going forward,” said Jack Semrau 23EvMBA, the fund’s managing partner for deal sourcing and portfolio management.

“We worked through a very traditional process of what you see in other VC firms, to make sure that we find exceptional founders who showcased their know-how and their specific industry and product so that we could proceed to actually make an investment,” Semrau continued. “We couldn’t be happier to make the first round of investments that are part of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund.”

The fund grew from the work of Brianna Davis 20MBA, Kristen Little 21MBA, Chis Anen 21MBA, Alan Quigley 21MBA, and Willie Sullivan 21MBA, who learned from local underrepresented entrepreneurs that access to capital was a major pain point, and they wanted to do something about it.

“As students, you can only do so much; you really have to have a faculty or staff member that really believes in the idea,” Sullivan said in reflection as the first three investments were announced.

Sullivan joined the current MBA students in thanking supporters “who really believed in this and believed in our ability to make this happen,” including but not limited to Professor in the Practice of Finance J.B. Kurish, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting and Interim John H. Harland Dean Karen Sedatole, The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Director Amelia Schaffner, and Asa Griggs Candler Chair and professor in Organization & Management Robert Kazanjian.

Kazanjian pointed out that the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund is one example of the school’s continuing commitment to DEI, which is one of its four strategic priorities. He noted that new opportunities await the incoming managing partners and associates, such as identifying resources for startups that are strong investment targets but did not yet receive funding.

We are really good at finding interesting ways to take what might be a straight theoretical issue in the classroom, and then having students experience it in a real setting. This is a big challenge for professional schools, how to manage that tension between theory and practice. I see this venture fund as absolutely working and think this is a great example of what Goizueta does well.

Robert Kazanjian, academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

For more information and to get involved, visit the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund website. Learn more about Goizueta’s commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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“Many more women are now starting businesses. Maybe 15 percent of the students in my classes were women back in 2010,” Goetz recalls. “Today I have classes where that’s 45 percent.”

The gap between men and women is narrowing, with women now pursuing a broader variety of businesses. “Guys tend to be more tech-oriented where I’d say a slight preponderance of women create more retail-oriented ventures, but not always. The trend is changing,” Goetz says. Women start businesses for different reasons than men. “I’d say women are not as motivated by money as men,” he says. “Women think, ‘this is a problem, and I can fix it.’ They want results. Men seek a great financial opportunity.”

Women are more mission-driven, and they start more nonprofits by far than men.

Charlie Goetz, distinguished lecturer in entrepreneurship

Founders Build Meaningful Businesses that Merge Passion and Profit

Lola Banjo 11MBA was compelled to found her startup Silver & Riley. Banjo works full-time as the senior managing director for strategy and innovation consulting at Salesforce, a position she loves and isn’t willing to leave. But she also harbored a “nearly decade-long dream” to start her own company and realize her “genuine passion and love for both the travel and fashion industry.”

Banjo’s startup workday begins at 2 a.m. for Silver & Riley.

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It takes real commitment, dedication, time management, and true passion to sustain.

Lola Banjo 11MBA

Silver & Riley manufactures and sells stylish leather travel bags and accessories for professional women; the brand now includes fashion, which will expand her target audience.

As the founder of Gather’d Market, Antoinette Rosenberg 14MBA saw a problem and decided to fix it—a lesson she learned at Goizueta.

You can build a successful and enduring business off of one unique customer insight. This was a common theme in the stories of all the entrepreneurs we heard from in Charlie Goetz’s classes.

Antoinette Rosenberg 14MBA

Rosenberg is tackling the pain point of families who need a ‘meal-time partner.’ There are plenty of ways to get groceries delivered, but Gather’d is entering into the food buying experience before families even make their grocery list. Located in Seattle, Rosenberg has aspirations to expand nationally.

Raising Capital Presents Greater Challenges to Female Founders than Male

One of the biggest differences between men and women entrepreneurs comes in raising capital. “Unfortunately, it is harder for women to get funding. But more venture companies and angel groups are now looking for women’s businesses specifically,” Goetz says. “Banks are also making a significant change to try to better the needs of women entrepreneurs.” Adding, “Now, we are having a different conversation.”

Banjo invested $200,000 of her own money to launch her business in October 2019. Five months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Sales halted. She couldn’t receive her product or travel to Italy where the bags were made. As for working capital? It was tied up in inventory that couldn’t be delivered. She relied on “strength of mind” to navigate the challenges and relied on memories of “grit, pain, and preserving the human spirit,” from her time growing up in Lagos in an area severely economically disadvantaged.

Atlanta-based Laine London is a first-of-its-kind Black woman-owned rental bridal shop that provides brides-to-be with convenient and cost-efficient access to wedding gowns, veils, accessories, and more. With 2.5 million weddings a year in this country, Founder Lundyn Carter 17EMBA sees a huge national opportunity.

Carter bootstrapped for the first year, which “allowed us to find product-market fit and build a working capital model that has allowed us to fund our own growth.” She received over $150k in capital contributions in the form of non-dilutive grants from organizations such as Google, American Express, Facebook, and Unilever. Carter also partnered with Verizon on her marcom strategy and SAP on streamlining operations.

Sights set high, Carter’s quest is for Laine London to become the premier wedding resource in the U.S. and attract funding opportunities. “We’re not what your traditional venture-backed startup looks like, so I anticipate some hesitation from investors who may not initially understand our growth potential or see a path to profitability,” she says.

While some would call Laine London a small business, I see us as a tech-enabled Clothing as a Service (CaaS) startup that’s disrupting a 2.4B industry that has seen little to no change. I believe that the right capital resource(s) will come along and see Laine London as an asset to their portfolio.

Lundyn Carter 17EMBA

Rosenberg concentrates on fortifying her business and doesn’t chase after money. “I have learned, and continue to come back to, the importance of staying focused on the real human problem you are trying to solve.”

“In a frothy startup market, it’s easy to look around and see all the money being raised for on-trend businesses. But if raising money is your end game, then one day you’re a ‘future of work’ company, and next day you’re a web3 business,” she says. “This feels like a sure way to fail. Instead, I’ve learned that staying focused not only keeps you moving in the right direction but also opens up opportunities for innovation.”

Antoinette Rosenberg 14MBA

Business is the Most Powerful Vehicle for Change in Society

Goetz shares that more women not only start nonprofits than men, but they tend to have a charity or nonprofit component in their enterprises. The first lesson Rosenberg learned at Emory is that business is the most powerful vehicle for change in society. “During a mid-semester module in South Africa, we visited a company that made banking accessible via a cell phone sim card. Because of that company’s work, a population without access to traditional banks could now deposit, transfer, and withdraw money with ease,” she says.

Banjo remains a “principled leader,” a core value she learned at Goizueta. “As my career has gone on, I have come to recognize how important this truly is.”

Whether you are in corporate America or in business, you’ll be called to task to lead, even if you do not have leader in your title. As a leader, you have to be sure you are walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Your legacy is created every day.

Lola Banjo 11MBA

Banjo is true to her word. For Silver & Riley, five percent of every sale is funneled into grants to help launch, grow, and scale female-led businesses. The first round of $1,000 has grown into $10,000.

Even with challenges, Goetz says it’s not surprising that women are overcoming them and holding their own. “Women are more determined than ever to become entrepreneurs.”

Banjo accumulated 136 rejections from manufacturers—but two others said yes. “Never give up. When you’re first starting out, you’ll hear ‘NO’ a lot. Your breakthrough is just around the corner! Every ‘NO’ is one step closer to a ‘Yes.’ Keep going for your dreams.”

Carter learned the meaning of success and credits Mellody Hobson, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, for the insight. “Success is truly a function of how you define it, not anyone else. Hard work plus bravery equals success.”

She admits that every person has their own definition of hard work but, it doesn’t matter. “Hard still means overcoming adversity, obstacles, and challenges. For me, bravery is the ability to be bold, fearless, and true to yourself and your beliefs. For instance, we’re not looking to be just another bridal shop. We’re taking advantage of new technologies not only to cut costs, but also to unlock massive value so we can maintain our first-mover advantage and stay two steps ahead or our competitors.”

Stories of creativity and determination help define women entrepreneurs, says Goetz. “I have to give them credit. They can handle a lot more than men. I don’t know how they do it. But they do.”

The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation serves as the resource hub for student and alumni entrepreneurs, early-stage investors, startup launch accelerator participants, and ecosystem collaborators. On March 31 and April 1, the center will host the 2022 Emory Entrepreneurship Summit featuring keynote speaker Vivek Garipalli 00BBA, Co-Founder and CEO of Clover Health. Register for the summit today.

As part of the center’s outreach, the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund is the first-of-its-kind student-run million-dollar venture capital fund focused on underrepresented founders. Learn more.

Goizueta students interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, and early-stage investing are invited to apply to become student fellows of the center. Applications are now open.

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Conversely, 2021 was also a record year for startups. The U.S. Census Bureau reported 5.4 million new business applications in 2021, surpassing 2020’s record of 4.4 million. Just like that, employees became entrepreneurs.

Goizueta Focuses Efforts on the Three Pillars of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Investing

The economic stage was perfectly set, then, for one of Goizueta Business School’s latest enterprises: The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Launched in February of 2021, the center has had a banner first year.

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate our one-year anniversary of serving the Goizueta community of entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors,” says Amelia Schaffner, center director.

We think of the center as a startup at the beginning of the journey, pivoting to adjust to the community’s needs, always piloting new initiatives to ensure the success of students and alumni, and strengthening connections in the ecosystem by partnering strategically with great leaders.

Amelia Schaffner, center director

Funded by a gift from The Goizueta Foundation, the center focuses on three pillars: entrepreneurship, investing, and innovation. Robert Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management and academic director for the Center, says programming across all three pillars has flourished in the first year.

“In the area of entrepreneurship, we have given considerable attention to supporting students and alumni interested in starting their own businesses,” he says. “We do this through connecting these individuals with one of 16 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence—many of whom are alumni themselves—who serve as an important source of guidance. In our investment pillar, we host several programs to connect investors with startups that often lead to investment deals. In our corporate innovation pillar, we delivered panel discussions on topics such as the future of the auto industry and the advent of fintech.”

Thanks to the new center, opportunities are rife for Goizueta students and alumni looking to seize their destinies. “As a newcomer to Atlanta, the center team has plugged me into entrepreneurial channels I did not know existed and empowered me to explore unfamiliar pursuits,” says Dylan Cowley 22MBA.

For Alan Quigley 21MBA, venture associate at Aflac Global Ventures, the center gave him real-world investing experience while also allowing him to empower underrepresented communities. “As a student, I was a member of the founding team of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, and I continue to be involved now as an advisor,” he said. “The progress that we have seen in several different initiatives is a real testament to the leadership of the center as well as the students who represent it.”

Creating Opportunities and Sharing Wisdom in the Center’s First Year

As The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation prepares for another busy and prosperous year, here is a look back on highlights from 2021.

The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Launches to Global Community

The future of work, from corporate America to main street, has an entrepreneurial spirit to it, and The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation offers students, alumni, community members, and corporate partners a portfolio of programs to meet those growing needs and interests. Read the full article here.

A Million-Dollar Student-Run Venture Capital Fund Focused on Empowering Underrepresented Founders

Venture capital shaped Miguel Vergara 22MBA’s path to Goizueta Business School’s full-time MBA program, where he is eager to participate in a new venture fund run by himself and other students. These students are carrying on the legacy of recent MBA graduates who sought to take action against systemic racial inequalities in business. The result is the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the first student-run fund in the United States that empowers underrepresented founders. Read the full article here.

Goizueta Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Provide Insight into Entrepreneurship, Early-Stage Investing, and Innovation

The spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation grows stronger by the year at Goizueta Business School, where at least 20 percent of the student body aspires to found a company in the future. Through a commitment to mentoring, teaching, and inspiring those who follow in their footsteps, the members of Goizueta’s 2021-23 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR) cohort are poised to help students translate vision into impact. Read the full article here.

This CEO Knows His Sheet: Sassy Ads and Sustainable Products Make a Winning Combination  

Since the start of Colin McIntosh 12BBA’s career, finding meaning and making an impact has been at the forefront of his work. He turned down an offer at Drizly, which was acquired for $1.1 billion by Uber, to work at bettering the lives of animals. His last startup, Revolar, combatted sexual assault and violence. His sustainable bedding company Sheets & Giggles, founded in 2017, is equally conscious.

“It was crucial for me to build a socially responsible company,” McIntosh says. Read the full article here.  

Fueling Southeast’s Entrepreneurial Growth by Inspiring Goizueta Entrepreneurs, Innovation, and Investing

“Over the last few years, as part of Goizueta’s strategy, we have been consistently growing our entrepreneurship and investing initiatives into a complex portfolio to serve the venture aspirations of our community, from students to alumni,” said Robert Kazanjian, senior associate dean for strategic initiatives and academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. “The Siggie Awards complements the building of a network of investors across the entire Southeast, which starts with programs like the RAISE Forum and fits the growing number of startups we’re helping to fund.” Read the full article here.  

Are you ready to explore the resources of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation? Learn how Goizueta empowers entrepreneurs, innovators, and problem-solvers in a changing world.

The post Celebrating The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation One Year Later appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

“Our history is illuminating,” says Jill Perry-Smith, senior associate dean of strategic initiatives. Perry-Smith is charged with leading the school’s DEI strategies and notes, “It is important to recognize trailblazers and have an opportunity to think through the events of the country and world as they collide with our local history.”

In recognition of our journey, Goizueta created Black History at Goizueta, a timeline of significant milestones throughout our institution’s history. In 2020, Goizueta launched the Common Read program, providing a forum for self-education and a safe space for honest dialogue for those seeking to be allies. Last fall, Goizueta launched the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund through The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation—a million-dollar venture capital fund focused on empowering underrepresented founders. In December, Goizueta announced the addition of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion concentration for Full-Time MBA programs. And earlier this year, Goizueta announced the winners of the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case competition, engaging leading students to examine how companies can address racial injustice within their organizations.

As Trailblazer Nsombi Ricketts 06MBA has said, “I’m impressed by how the school has embraced diversity in a way we were fighting for when we were students. It’s rewarding to see DEI being prioritized.” Ricketts came to Goizueta through the Consortium, a partner organization that awards merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to top MBA candidates to reduce the underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans at member schools and institutions.

Meet Some of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Trailblazers

Late last year, Goizueta spoke with influential individuals for whom advancing equity and inclusion is paramount.

• Erika H. James was not only Goizueta Business School’s first African American dean, but she was also the first female African American to serve as dean of a top-25 business school.
• Shan Cooper 95MBA, Fortune 500 executive and the first student to be named as an Emory Board of Trustees Member.
• Bill Carr 94MBA, former Amazon executive and donor for the Michael H. Lee Scholarship.
• W. Curt Hunter, Goizueta’s first African American faculty member, a finance professor who served from 1980-1995.
• Willie Sullivan 21MBA, founder of the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition.
• Nsombi Ricketts 06MBA, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion executive and founder of the student-run Diverse Leadership Conference.

Wesley Longhofer, Goizueta Foundation Term Associate Professor of Organization & Management and executive academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute, noted, “As an institute, we do not claim to have all the answers facing business and society; rather we want to be a catalyst for asking the right kinds of questions.”

Watch the Goizueta Trailblazers videos on our YouTube playlist.

Through strategic, structural, and sustainable action, we commit to expanding cultural knowledge, reflecting the broader society, and improving equity in business. At Goizueta, diversity is a commitment to nurture and challenge the unique perspectives that will shape the future of business. It’s a commitment to innovate in traditional fields and embrace emerging insights. It is the foundation of our intentions and actions. It is one of the core values by which we lead. Learn more.

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Enjoy these ten great stories that you might have missed.

Goizueta Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Provide Insight into Entrepreneurship, Early-Stage Investing, and Innovation

Goizueta’s 2021-23 Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR) cohort are poised to help students translate vision into impact. The EiR program is housed within The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, launched in 2021 to foster entrepreneurship and innovation by offering vital support in three areas: entrepreneurship, early-stage investing, and innovation.

The EiR program plays a vital role in the Center’s efforts to support entrepreneurship, early-stage investing, and innovation. Since the creation of the program in 2017, Goizueta has selected EiRs whose backgrounds and experiences align with these priorities. Read the complete article here.

From Bean to Cup: Goizueta Balances the Scale of Financial Equity for Female Coffee Farmers

The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute’s Grounds for Empowerment (GFE) program seeks to balance the scales in one historically imbalanced industry: coffee. “From a business school perspective, coffee represents a very important problem,” said Giselle Barrera 15MBA, GFE’s program manager for Latin America. “It’s a multibillion-dollar market where you’re not looking for consumers. You don’t find coffee; coffee finds you. And yet, if you look at the value chain, the revenue is not distributed equally.” Read the complete article here.

Full-Time MBA Ranks 18th in Nation by Businessweek 

In the recently released Bloomberg Businessweek 2021-22 Best B-schools MBA ranking, the Full-Time, Two-Year MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School is ranked 18^th in the nation. The ranking evaluates Full-Time MBA programs on five key categories including compensation, networking, learning, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The diversity category is a new measure added in this year’s methodology and measures MBA programs based on race, ethnicity, and gender in their classes. Read the complete article.

Erin Lightfoot 21MBA On the Forefront of Vaccinating Georgians

Social Enterprise Fellow Erin Lightfoot 21MBA has served as a mass vaccination site operations manager at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta. The largest mass vaccination site in the southeast, Mercedes-Benz crossed the 250,000-vaccination milestone on April 30th. “It’s been a huge, orchestra-like production,” Lightfoot explained. “Multiple teams have come together to bring this whole initiative to life.” Read the complete article here.

Corporate Social Responsibility Builds Investor Trust

Goizueta faculty research delves deep into critical issues for business leaders around the world. In her latest research, Assistant Professor of Accounting Suhas A. Sridharan notes, “Earnings announcements are among the most salient and recurring areas of corporate disclosure, and managers and investors pay very close attention to them.”  She goes on to say, “We know that these types of announcements are lengthy and dense; they take time to process. So, the intuition here is that when your firm plants a flag on responsibility and accountability, investors are more likely to take your disclosures at face value – they’re more likely to trust what you’re saying.” Read the complete article.

Goizueta MBA Students Deliver Impact to Mentoring Program for Rural Georgia Teens

The Goizueta IMPACT program puts theory into practice to build career readiness. In the process, all MBA students are offered the opportunity to affect countless lives by sharing forward-looking expertise and feedback with community organizations, corporations, and nonprofits. To date, this unique MBA experiential learning program has provided action plans for local, national, and international organizations.

About 75 miles east of Goizueta Business School, Dave Thillen began realizing in 2020 that his deeply rooted, effective, volunteer mentoring program could benefit from professional consulting. For decades he had loved the frontline work of supporting hundreds of rural teenagers to set individualized life goals and begin to achieve them. Read the complete article here.

New SPAC IPOs Inspire Happy Investors to Sign Blank Checks

The current SPAC frenzy has led to predictions that the SPAC market is a bubble ready to burst, but Klaas Baks, professor in the practice of finance and executive director, Emory Center for Alternative Investments, doesn’t see it that way. He points to financial practices such as leveraged buyouts and securitization, both considered suspect in their heyday, but that are mainstream today. “We’re in the first inning of SPACs,” said Baks. Read the complete article here.

A Million-Dollar Student-Run Venture Capital Fund Focused on Empowering Underrepresented Founders

Venture capital shaped Miguel Vergara 22MBA’s path to Goizueta Business School’s full-time MBA program, where he is eager to participate in a new venture fund run by himself and other students. These students are carrying on the legacy of recent MBA graduates who sought to take action against systemic racial inequalities in business. The result is the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the first student-run fund in the United States focused on empowering underrepresented founders. Read the complete article here.

Goizueta Faculty Recognized with Awards for Excellence, Dedication over Past Year

Each year, Goizueta Business School honors faculty members for their dedication to and leadership in academic excellence in teaching, content development, experiential learning, scholarly inquisition, and commitment. We are proud to present this year’s 14 recipients.

Several Goizueta faculty were recently recognized by Emory University for their accomplishments over the past year, including Assistant Professor in the Practice of Accounting Allison Kays and Associate Professor in the Practice of Marketing Omar Rodríguez-Vilá. Read the complete article here.

Mercedes-Benz USA Gains Goizueta Student Gen Z Insight in Business Communication Strategy Case Competition

Each year, BBA students at Goizueta participate in the “BComm” course designed to strengthen their communications techniques and introduce them to the skills required to prepare for and deliver client presentations.

The defining moment of the BBA program’s Business Communication Strategy or “BComm” course is the end-of-semester Professional Communications Strategy Case Competition. This past spring, executives from Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) asked three-dozen BComm student teams how they would introduce Mercedes-EQA, the automaker’s new, all-electric crossover SUV, to Gen Z consumers (those born between 1995 and 2010). Read the complete article here.

Goizueta Celebrates 2021 Undergraduate and MBA Business Grads for Record-Breaking Employment Rates, Top Salaries

With principled leadership in the forefront, Goizueta is proud to report that 97 percent of 2021 BBA graduates received, and 96 percent accepted employment offers within three months of graduating. Read the complete article here. Touting the best employment rates in the school’s history, Goizueta full-time MBA graduates entered the job market in full force. Within three months of graduating, 99 percent of students received and accepted offers for a full-time job. Furthermore, at graduation, 91 percent of the class received a full-time offer, representing an 8 percent increase over the previous year. Read the complete article here.

Check out our homepage at EmoryBusiness.com for new stories highlighting faculty, alumni, and student insight into the research, trends, and current events impacting business today.

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