UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA News

Published: August 19, 2014

Business School Students Accept ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Pass It On

With the likes of Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and former President George W. Bush pouring buckets of ice over their heads in support of ALS awareness, surely top business schools are getting in on the action as well, right? At Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, it began with one section (Section 4) challenging another (Section 5). That section upped the ante, challenging the entire rest of the class, as well as all of Fuqua’s MMS Cross Continent students. So on August 13th, Team Fuqua did the #ALSIceBucketChallenge as one. Read more

Published: August 4, 2014

The Economist Group Launches $25,000 MBA Scholarship Contest

The Economist Group’s business education division, Which MBA?, yesterday launched its second Brightest Minds MBA Scholarship Contest, which will award a $25,000 scholarship to the prospective MBA or EMBA student who scores highest on a simulated GMAT exam. The first Brightest Minds MBA scholarship ran earlier this year, drawing more than 4,500 entrants, The Economist Group reports. The winner, Rishabh P. from India, is currently applying to several business schools, with plans to begin an MBA program in fall 2015. Read more

Published: August 3, 2014

Admissions Director Q&A: Sherry Wallace of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School

Today we hear from Sherry Wallace, director of MBA admissions at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. We are grateful to her for making time to share some of the things she’s most excited about in the year ahead – not the least of which is welcoming a new class of students to campus today for orientation. But that’s not all. With a new dean at the helm, Kenan-Flagler is in the midst of wide-spread growth and improvement. Increased application volume, record numbers of job postings, a new energy concentration and continuing emphasis on leadership are just a few of the things you’ll learn about in the interview that follows. Read more

Published: July 7, 2014

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Announces Second Online Degree Program

The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School will offer a second online degree, its top-ranked Master of Accounting (MAC) Program, the school announced this week. Pending approval, the new program, called Accounting@UNC, is scheduled to launch in July 2015. The decision to offer this second degree was driven both by the school’s successful track record in delivering quality online education and by strong hiring demand for the school’s MAC graduates, Kenan-Flagler reports. The school launched its first online degree program, MBA@UNC, in 2011. It has grown from 19 students in the first class to 550 students today. Read more

Published: June 8, 2014

Better Storytelling Leads to Soaring Application Volume at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School

The Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill saw the number of applicants to its MBA program increase 28 percent this year over last, growth the school attributes to better “storytelling” and branding, according to a report in Triangle Business Journal. UNC as a whole has been working to increase brand recognition, and the increase in applicant volume at the business school is in part a result of these branding efforts, Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate dean for the MBA program, told the Triangle Business Journal. Read more

Published: May 21, 2014

UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business Joined by Growing Number of Partners in OneMBA® Program

Kenan-Flagler was one of the four founding partner schools of the OneMBA® Program. Other founding partners include Mexico’s EGADE Business School Tecnológico de Monterrey (EGADE Business School), Brazil’s Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo da Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP) and Erasmus University's Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) in the Netherlands. This week, OneMBA announced its newest partner, the School of Management at Xiamen University. OneMBA is a global executive MBA program offered in partnership by business schools around the world. In the 12 years since its launch, OneMBA had established a reputation for itself as one of the world’s most unique and diverse international MBA programs, according to Yifeng Shen, dean of the Xiamen University School of Management (SMXMU). “OneMBA's vision and goals reflect those of Tan Kah Kee, the ‘Henry Ford of Asia,’ who founded Xiamen University and its business program in 1921 with the call to serve China while embracing world cultures,” Shen said in a statement. Read more

Published: April 6, 2014

UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business Teaches the Languages of Global Business

Do you know about the Working Languages program at UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business? It’s a series of courses designed to help business students develop communication skills in foreign languages that will allow them to thrive in today’s increasingly international business environment. So far, nearly 400 students have taken part, the school reports. Working Language courses are offered to both undergraduate business and MBA students through the Global Business Center (GBC), with partial support from a CIBER grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Currently, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin classes are available. Participants in the Working Language program learn through a combination of classes, online exercises and conversation hours with native speakers. Read more

Published: March 20, 2014

Online Here We Come, Says Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School (HBS) today announced that it is joining some of its peer business schools in launching an online learning program. Called HBX, the online initiative is one the school hopes will successfully convey its signature case method digitally. HBX’s initial offering, called CORe (Credentials of Readiness), will provide participants with a primer on the fundamentals of business. “The HBX launch marks an important milestone in our ongoing efforts to educate leaders who make a difference in the world,” HBS Dean Nitin Nohria said in a statement. The program embodies the school’s hallmark highly engaged, interactive learning and will provide an important means of engaging with new and wider audiences, he added. Read more

Published: February 19, 2014

UNC Kenan-Flagler to Co-Host Inaugural Clean Tech Summit

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) at the University of North Carolina (UNC)’s Kenan-Flagler Business School will co-host an inaugural Clean Tech Summit next week, where the focus will be on how to support clean technology growth in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The event, co-hosted by the UNC Institute for the Environment in partnership with the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster and Strata Solar, will take place on Wednesday, February 26th. Specifically, it will examine ways for the Research Triangle to take a global leadership position in the clean tech filed, through the use of smart grid technology, efficient water management, efficient multimodal transportation, environmentally sustainable waste disposal technologies and more. Read more

Published: January 26, 2014

Harvard Business School Again Tops Financial Times Global MBA Ranking

Harvard Business School (HBS) appeared at the top of the Financial Times Global MBA annual ranking, released yesterday. It was HBS’ second consecutive claim to the number-one spot and its fifth time topping the rankings since they debuted in 1999. Stanford Graduate School of Business also remained steady this year, reclaiming the number-two spot it held last year. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania slipped to fourth as London Business School stepped into the number-three spot. Columbia Business School and INSEAD tied for fifth. The FT compiles its annual global MBA rankings based on two surveys of the business schools and their alumni. (For this year rankings, alumni who graduated in 2010 were surveyed.) Based on the responses to these surveys, the MBA programs are measured according to the career progression of their alumni, the school’s idea generation and the diversity of students and faculty. Read more

Published: January 22, 2014

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Appoints New Dean

The Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill yesterday announced that Professor Douglas A. Shackelford has been appointed to serve as the school’s next dean. Shackelford, a professor of taxation and associate dean of the MBA@UNC Program, will assume this new role beginning February 1, 2014, pending approval by the UNC Board of Trustees. UNC Chancellor Carol Folt and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost James W. Dean Jr. picked Shackelford for the dean’s position after an international search led by Susan King, dean of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Read more

Published: December 17, 2013

UNC Kenan-Flagler, AACSB to Co-Host Seminar for Business Schools on Leadership Curriculum Development

The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, together with business school accreditation organization the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), will take the lead in helping business schools think about how best to develop a leadership curriculum as part of a seminar in late January. The Curriculum Development for Leadership seminar, which will take place January 23rd and 24th in Chapel Hill, will prepare participants from a range of business schools to tailor leadership development experiences according to their schools’ specific capabilities and resources. Read more

Published: December 12, 2013

Try a Taste of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with A Class in Portuguese or Mandarin

The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School will offer two new online courses for business professionals and MBA students, on in Portuguese and another in Mandarin, the school announced last month. “Working Portuguese” and “Working Mandarin,” each taught at the beginner level, will be offered Jan. 27-April 7, 2014. The fee for MBA students will be $575; working professionals will pay $775. The cost will cover 10 weekly online sessions with the professor and a weekly online conversation hour with native speakers of the languages being studied. For prospective applicants with an interest in languages who are Read more

Published: October 16, 2013

Career Services Director Q&A: UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Amy Wittmayer

Our Career Services Director Q&A Series this week takes us to the southern United States, where we connected with Amy Wittmayer, director of the MBA Career Management Center (CMC) at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Wittmayer joined UNC Kenan-Flagler in 2010. Before that, she had her own career coaching firm, worked at the University of Texas MBA Career Services office and worked for eight years in corporate finance and strategy. Read on to learn more about how Wittmayer and her team at the Career Management Center start their work with Kenan-Flagler students even before the arrive on campus. Prospective applicants – you won’t want to miss her advice for how you can hit the ground running when you arrive. Read more

Published: September 25, 2013

UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School Debuts New MBA App for Prospective Applicants

Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina this week released a new app for iPad and iPhone designed to help prospective applicants to business school evaluate whether, when and where to pursue an MBA degree. The MBA App, available for free download in the Apple App Store, was designed to help prospective applicants navigate key “pain points” surrounding the decision to pursue an MBA, Kenan-Flagler Admissions Director Sherry Wallace said in a statement. “Our admissions team listened to the issues that prospective students pondered, and then developed useful information that helps them address those questions and provides valuable information about the process,” she continued. Read more

Published: September 2, 2013

UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business Appoints Former Dean to Serve Third Interim Dean Role

Jim Dean, former dean of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, was appointed in May to become UNC executive vice chancellor and provost, leaving the business school in need of a leader. Dean turned to Jack Evans (pictured), asking if he would serve as interim dean. With more than 40 years of experience at Kenan-Flagler, Evans came out of retirement to answer Dean’s call. In addition to holding the Kenan-Flagler deanship from 1979 to 1987, he served two subsequent terms as interim dean. He first came to Kenan-Flagler in 1970, as a professor of operations. Read more

Published: May 27, 2013

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Appointed School Provost

The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School will soon need to begin a search for a new dean. That's because its current dean, Jim Dean, has been appointed executive vice chancellor and provost for the university, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported last week. Dean, who has served as dean at Kenan-Flagler since 2008, will transition to his new role effective July 1st, at which point he will be Dean Dean no more. UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp and Chancellor-Elect Carol Folt shared news of Dean’s appointment in a May 23rd email to the UNC community. The University’s board voted on the appointment earlier that day. Read more

Published: September 26, 2012

Admissions Director Q&A: Sherry Wallace of the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School

Our 2014 Admissions Director Q&A with Kenan-Flagler's Sherry Wallace is now available. Sherry Wallace, director of MBA admissions at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, told us that she wants to make the admissions process as transparent as possible. “There is no advantage to us in our selection process if people feel like they are in the dark,” she said. Wallace herself graduated from the Kenan-Flagler MBA program in 1987 and pursued a career in advertising and marketing with several major consumer packaged goods companies. She later married and returned to North Carolina, and 15 years ago she was offered the opportunity to come back to Kenan-Flagler as part of the admissions team. “It fit me to a tee, and I didn’t need to think very long about coming back to work in Chapel Hill,” she recounts. While she might not have imagined herself in her current role at the start of her career, that she is here now shows the power and flexibility of the MBA, she says. In the interview that follows, Wallace takes the time to completely demystify the admissions process for prospective applicants to Kenan-Flagler, sharing candidly about what they can expect and how best to prepare. She also underscores the strength of the school’s career services offerings, notes the development of a new healthcare curriculum and more. Enjoy! Read more