Frequent Fliers: MBA Students Meet with Alumni on Coasts East, West and Points in Between

MBA students have racked up lots of frequent flier miles this year meeting with alumni in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Atlanta, South Bend and Chicago - just to name a few.

More than 200 alumni and students gathered in Chicago at a February networking event, where students were thrilled to have access to so many alumni in one place. A January trip to the San Francisco Bay area included visits to five Silicon Valley companies: Cisco Systems, Intel, Informatica, MyCFO, and Network Appliance (NetApp). At NetApp, President Tom Mendoza (ND '73) conducted a "backstage tour" of his company, one of Silicon Valley's major success stories. "The Net App tour helped us evaluate career options and the alumni were really impressive," said Carol D'Souza (MBA '01). "The trip made me so proud to be part of the ND family."

A dozen students traveled to New York City for a similar alumni networking event in October. "These networking events are extremely valuable," said Lori Lepp (MBA '99), who attended the Big Apple event. "Students learn about potential job opportunities, while alumni can hire qualified candidates. Some alumni even brought their companies' recruiters along to the reception."

Students visited Boston alumni in April on a trip organized by the Applied Investment Management (AIM) class. During the trip, the students met with executives at some of the finest money management firms in the world, including Wellington Management Co., Thomas H. Lee Co., Mellon Trust, Essex Investment Management and Summit Partners. The company visits were arranged by Scott Malpass ('84, MBA '86), ND's vice president for finance and chief investment officer.

The 72nd annual ND Blue-Gold game April 28 included an MBA "tailgate" reception in the courtyard behind the Alumni-Senior Club on campus. For information about upcoming MBA alumni events, see http://www.nd.edu/~mbaalum