College of Business News

The Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) team, comprised of four Montana State University (MSU) College of Business (CoB) students (Left-Right): Alyssa Sipes, Caitlin Kilroy, Renee Waterland, Anna Adolphson, and Amanda Powell, traveled to Denver, Colorado on March 22-23 for the annual BAP Rocky Mountain Regional Conference.

They competed and placed third in the Best Practices Competition in the “Inspiration” category. The team developed an inspirational, creative, and fun “Careers in Accounting” presentation geared for high school seniors in under-served communities. The CoB students competed against accounting students from University of New Mexico, Utah Valley University, BYU, University of Utah, and Fort Lewis College.

With the contributions of the Alderson family going towards students participating in these competitions, CoB students have been able to compete against other universities, which provides them with experience and helps them develop a confidence about their business education and knowledge gained through the CoB.

For more information about Beta Alpha Psi, please visit their webpage http://www.montana.edu/cob/Accounting/club.html.

News

The Starzen Internship is a month-long summer internship in Tokyo for two CoB students with the Starzen Company, Ltd., an international trading company and meat manufacturer. Through this program the CoB students will become familiar with the Japanese culture, Japanese business practices, and the operations of an international agricultural company. The students selected for this internship will be eligible to receive MSU internship credit.*

Please submit an electronic copy of your application and all supporting materials to starzen@montana.edu by March 28. Final decisions and notifications regarding selections will be completed by April 19.

For application forms and additional information about the Starzen Internship, please click here. Questions? Please contact Myleen Leary, starzen@montana.edu or (406) 994-6203.

“You haven’t really experienced what international business is like until you have been in Tokyo’s busy business district on a Monday morning, gotten lost in the subway network, eaten food you didn’t think was edible, and experienced how small business gestures can make the difference between failure and success in business interactions - and the Starzen internship let me experience all of these things, and more.”
—Karoline B. Teien, Business Management/International Business, Intern 2007

News

Rob Irizarry, entrepreneur, angel investor and founder of StartupBozeman, will serve as the Montana State University College of Business (CoB)’s Spring Entrepreneur-in-Residence and give a free public lecture at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Procrastinator Theater. The series is a feature of the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship.

“Lean Startup: A Scientific Approach to Building Startups” will include answers to questions about starting and building new businesses using processes that minimize the risk of failure. Those questions include “Why do so many startups fail? What can be done to reduce the failure rate? How do I apply these principles to my business today?”

As Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the week of March 25-29, Irizarry will also visit business classes throughout the week and meet with students in the entrepreneurship program.

Irizarry, who lives in Bozeman, moved to Montana in 1999 to join RightNow Technologies. According to event organizers, Irizarry has nearly three decades of experience working with hardware and software technology in the finance, garment and automotive industries, and spent 12 years at RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, which pioneered multi-tenant software as a service for the customer experience market. He was the 20th employee at RightNow, which grew to over 1,100 employees before being acquired by Oracle for more than $1.5 billion.

Irizarry holds a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering technology. He gained career experience working in and with public and private sector organizations that employ 10 people to the Fortune 10 building systems, processes and teams working in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South Africa. Irizarry spent a decade living in Asia.

For more information on the lecture or the Entrepreneur-In-Residence program, contact Scott Bryant at bryant@montana.edu or 406-994-6191. More information about the CoB is available at http://www.montana.edu/cob/index.php.

News

Montana State University (MSU) College of Business (CoB) team members, Justin Hestekin, Amanda Johnson and Brad Penoyer, traveled to Spokane last week to participate in the local CFA Institute Research Challenge, where they placed first, winning the local round of the competition in Spokane, WA. They competed against teams from Whitworth, Washington State, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, and the University of Montana, as well as Carroll College. The trio of MSU CoB finance students advanced to the Americas regional round in Toronto, Canada, held on March 20-21.The regional competition will host 46 teams spanning the Americas region. The winning team will then face off in London against the winners from the Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) regions.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a competition between university-sponsored teams that research a designated publicly traded company, prepare a written report on that company and then present their findings to a panel of judges. Business and finance students participating in the CFA Institute Research Challenge interact with investment professionals and top firms while gaining real-world experience in equity analysis, sell-side research report writing and presentation skills.

The MSU CoB team, coached by Peter Rubicam, CoB adjunct instructor of finance, and Eric Flynn, CoB alumnus with Bitterroot Capital Advisors, LLC, spent three months preparing an analysis of one company for the competition. Rubicam said, “I have been extremely impressed by the meticulous preparation and outstanding professionalism displayed by these students in achieving this victory.”

This is the third year that MSU CoB has fielded a team. Previous team members have said the experience was not only rewarding, but also provided them with invaluable experience. In 2011, the MSU CoB team placed 2nd at the Spokane competition. These students received support and funding from the Alderson Program in Entrepreneurship.

For more information about the competition, please contact Peter Rubicam, peter.rubicam@montana.edu or 406-994-6198.

News

The College of Business and the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship are co-sponsoring an upcoming event: Education, Philanthropy and Civic Engagement with Charles Best - Social Entrepreneurship: My Venture Changes the World. Can Yours?

This event will be held in the SUB Ballrooms from 7:30-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5th.

Educator and entrepreneur, Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, will tell his story of philanthropy and innovation. As the founder of an online charity connecting classrooms in need with donors who want to help, Best went from teaching in his own classroom in the Bronx to impacting more than 8.5 million students in America. DonorsChoose has currently distributed nearly $170,000,000.

“We are thrilled to be hosting Mr. Best, who in the spirit of philanthropy, will be giving the audience over $22,000 in the form of $50 DonorsChoose gift cards,” says Carmen McSpadden, Director of the MSU Leadership Institute. “Those attending can feel the joy of being a citizen philanthropist and the joy of positively impacting a classroom of their choosing, be it a Montana classroom or one damaged by the recent New Jersey hurricane,” added McSpadden.

Since its inception, DonorsChoose has become the gold standard of direct-philanthropy in K-12 education in the United States, with 49% of public schools posting and receiving funding through its foundation.

News

Seven Montana State University seniors have won the 2013 Torlief Aasheim Community Involvement Awards, the university’s top award for student service.

College of Business senior, Anna Adolphson from Hamilton, Mont., is one of the recipients. She is an accounting major and a member of the Montana Society of Certified Public Accountants. She has also been an officer in Beta Alpha Psi, a national accounting club, and she co-taught MSU’s freshman business seminar as a student associate. Adolphson has volunteered through VITA, a program that is designed to assist people who may find it difficult to pay for tax preparation services. She has also participated in Relay for Life.

Anna Adolphson, Nicolais Cuyle, Jamie Inglis, Shannon LaRocca, Sydney Reichhardt, Esther Yoon and Michael Brent Zundel are the winners of the award, which recognizes a senior student from each college at MSU who, in addition to excelling academically, volunteers on campus and in the community. The award was named for the late MSU alumnus Torlief “Torley” Aasheim, former director of the Montana Cooperative Extension Service and a member of the class of 1937.

For more information about this award, please contact Kerry Hanson, (406) 994-7620 or kshanson@montana.edu, or Malaree Purcell, (406) 994-2522 or malaree.purcell@montana.edu.

News

Forty of Montana State University’s top seniors and their faculty or staff mentors were recognized Tuesday, February 19, at the 31st annual Awards for Excellence banquet held on the MSU campus.

The MSU Alumni Foundation and the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce co-hosted the banquet. Honored students were nominated by faculty in their college or department and had at least a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale, as well as demonstrated campus leadership and community service.

The award-winning students selected mentors who were also honored with them at the event.

The 2013 Excellence Award winners and their mentors for the College of Business are:

David Albright, finance, Bozeman, Mont., Gary Caton
Shaina Adami, marketing/management, Stillwater, Minn., Craig Ehlert
Anna Adolphson, accounting, Hamilton, Mont., Anne Christensen
Amanda Powell, accounting, Seattle, Wash., Angela Woodland

For more information about the Awards for Excellence, please contact Kerry Hanson, (406) 994-7620 or kshanson@montana.edu, or Malaree Purcell, (406) 994-2522 or malaree.purcell@montana.edu.

News

Senior and graduate accounting students from Montana State University’s College of Business are offering free help preparing tax returns for MSU students and individuals who made less than $58,000 last year.

The help sessions will be held on the MSU campus in Reid Hall 302 (computer lab). No appointment is necessary. Sessions will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. on the following dates: Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26, 28; March 5, 19, 26, 28; and April 2. At the sessions, students will be available to prepare federal and state income tax returns and answer tax questions. Free electronic filing will be available for most 1040 forms.

Individuals who are interested in free help should bring their 2012 W-2 forms, other tax documents, social security cards and copies of their 2011 tax returns (if available). International students and employees should also bring their passports and visas. Tax assistance for international students and employees begins Feb. 26.

The student accounting volunteers are part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which was established by the Internal Revenue Service to assist people who may find it difficult to pay for tax preparation services. The program also gives accounting students practical experience.

Each student accounting volunteer has passed an IRS tax preparation exam, completed at least one comprehensive tax course, received specific training related to common tax issues, and has access to a variety of federal and state reference materials. The sessions are sponsored by the MSU College of Business and Beta Alpha Psi, an honorary organization for financial information students and professionals.

Tim Melevin, an assistant visiting accounting professor at MSU, supervises the students. For questions, please email vita@montana.edu.

News

Dedicated teachers, dynamic researchers and faculty devoted to the betterment of Montana are among the winners of the top Montana State University 2013 faculty awards announced this week. The annual awards honor achievement in faculty research, teaching, outreach and creative projects. The awards were presented at the MSU Spring Convocation, which took place at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, in MSU’s Procrastinator Theater.

Laura Black, associate professor of management, received the Women’s Faculty Caucus Distinguished Mentor Award. It carries a $1,000 honorarium. The award recognizes an MSU faculty member for mentoring junior women faculty members by helping them negotiate the promotion and tenure process, encouraging their research and teaching activities, and providing “whole woman” role models. Colleagues say that since coming to MSU in 2002, Black has been a dedicated and committed advocate and mentor for numerous female faculty members in the College of Business and across campus. She has created a supportive research and teaching environment for those faculty members and has initiated informal mentoring relationships with junior faculty in the College of Business. Black regularly shares resources, creates opportunities for others and provides guidance in teaching, research and administration.

To see the full list of faculty and staff award winners, click here for the MSU article. For more information about MSU’s 2013 Spring Convocation, see: http://calendar.msu.montana.edu/events/7011.

News

Montana State University (MSU) College of Business (CoB) management instructor Craig Ehlert will present “10 Ideas for Success for Family-Run Businesses” at the Montana Chamber of Commerce 13th annual Business Days at the Capitol, January 7-8 in Helena. The seminar will run from 1:30-3:00 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7, at the Best Western Premier Helena Great Northern Hotel.

“We’re pleased to have the Family Business Program at Business Days again,” said Webb Brown, President/CEO of the Montana Chamber of Commerce. “Anyone who is interested in attending this free seminar should know they do not have to attend any of the other Business Days activities. In fact, some of those opportunities have already filled up.”

The free seminar is part of the CoB’s State Farm Insurance Family Business Program On the Road series. Ehlert’s program will feature 10 ideas for success for family-run businesses, focusing on experiences from companies who have won Family Business of the Year Awards in the past. The interactive workshop will provide attendees with ideas for improving their business practices.

Ehlert will also provide details on the Family Business Day program, including nomination information and an update on the On the Road speaker series.

Established in 1994 as an outreach program through the CoB, the Family Business Program offers education and information to Montana businesses that are owned and managed by families. The program allows businesses to share ideas and concerns that are not only common to most family-owned businesses, but which apply to all businesses. The program also provides recognition to pioneering and successful family businesses through the Montana Family Business of the Year Awards.

The CoB introduced the Family Business Program On the Road in 2007 in conjunction with the Business Days at the Capitol. Business Days at the Capitol started in 2001, (formerly Chamber Day at the Capitol). The Montana Chamber Foundation is a sponsor of the Family Business Program, along with State Farm. Additional support is provided by Stockman Bank.

The Business Days at the Capitol program starts at noon, Monday, Jan. 7, with the traditional “State of Business Address” luncheon. The Lawmaker Appreciation Reception and Dinner that evening will include presentations to High School Business Challenge winners and a keynote by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus.

Business Days continues the next morning, Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 a.m. with the “Eggs & Issues” breakfast featuring legislative leadership. It ends at noon with a luncheon and keynote presentation by Governor-elect Steve Bullock.

More event information can be found at http://Events.MontanaChamber.com. More information on the Program can be found at http://www.montana.edu/wwwdb/FamilyBusiness/FamilyBusiness.html.

News