Category: About Us

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Getting to Know the Class of 2018: Robert Hacker

Robert Hacker ’18 joined The Sustainable Innovation MBA program upon completing his undergraduate degree from James Madison University.  He was interviewed by Isabel Russell, an undergraduate at UVM.

Why did you choose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program?

I chose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program to gain the tools necessary to make an impact on the world. More specifically, I attended this program because I wanted to learn how I could use business as a tool to increase the impact I could have with my environmental biology degree.

What has been your favorite part/element of the program thus far?

My favorite part of the program thus far is my practicum project and my classmates. My practicum project is with Propagate Ventures, an alumni-founded (Editor’s note: Harrison Greene ’16) agroforestry and permaculture start-up, which allows me to use my biology background and my newly gained skills from The Sustainable Innovation MBA. This cohort is a great gathering of people with diverse backgrounds with a similar impact oriented mindset, which is a awesome environment to be a part of every day!

What are three things someone considering the program should be aware of?

1. This will be one of the busiest, most informative years of your life.

2. Good time management skills are so important in this program.

3. You may never want to leave Vermont after the program.

How has the Sustainable Innovation MBA helped you?

I have learned so much in the past months, from financial skills to people skills. My classmates have taught me just as much as my professors, and I am lucky to be able to learn so much from my them, since I am one of the younger members of the class.

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Getting to Know the Class of 2018: Sarah Healey

Sarah Healey ’18 comes to The Sustainable Innovation MBA after a career in retail management. She was interviewed by Isabel Russell, an undergraduate at UVM.

Why did you choose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program?

I chose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program because I wanted to gain the skills necessary to have a productive role in my family’s business. The program drew my attention because of its small size and focus on sustainability and entrepreneurship.

What has been your favorite part/element of the program thus far?

My favorite element is the cohort itself. I really enjoy getting to spend five days a week in class with people who have similar interests to me. I feel like the cohort really allows you to develop strong relationships.

What are three things someone considering the program should be aware of?

1) it is very accelerated! but definitely doable. 2) there are so many support systems in place to help you through the challenging parts of the program. 3) Even when it is busy it is so much fun.

How has The Sustainable Innovation MBA helped you?

The program has helped me in ways I never imagined. It has greatly improved my emotional intelligence and provided me the toolkit to continue to improve  into the future.

 

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“The bloodless logic of the marketplace…”

This article from Politico Magazine highlights how the things we should be doing from an environmental and climate change point of view are becoming more economical (although unevenly), and that it’s the quiet power of economics and business that are driving change rather than politics and public policy alone.

This is a core belief behind The Sustainable Innovation MBA: capitalism, disrupted and reinvented, is a force — along with many others — to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems. We must develop a new generation of business leaders who will build, innovate, disrupt, and reinvent climate change-focused enterprises in a world that demands it. In other words, UVM’s Sustainable Innovation MBA is part of the solution and is more important than ever and its graduates increasingly more vital to sustainable businesses.

As they say, read the whole thing:

My Life In The Elusive Green Economy

 

(illustration: Politico)

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Getting to Know the Class of 2018: Liz Ford

Liz Ford ’18 is the founder of the Green Mountain APA Pool League, a franchise of the world’s largest amateur league system.

Why did you choose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program?

In 2011, I starting building a business in Vermont (an amateur pool league that now has close to 400 members) which I am still running. I really enjoyed building a business from the ground up and I’d like to start more businesses in Vermont in the future, but felt that I was missing some of the financial and organizational tools that could really help me prosper in a sustainable way. When I heard about The Sustainable Innovation MBA program, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to learn to approach future projects in the right and ethical way, both environmentally and socially.

What has been your favorite part/element of the program thus far?

I’ve always loved math, but I’m surprised how much I’ve taken to the finance classes – I’m really enjoying thinking about statistics and probabilities. Completely on the other side of the spectrum, I enjoy anytime I can infuse one of the many presentations that we have to give in The Sustainable Innovation MBA with a little silliness and humor.

What are three things someone considering the program should be aware of?

1) First off, there is the intense time commitment that a one-year master’s program entails – some weeks require 40 hours of work and class, but some require close to 80.

2) Given this intensity, be prepared that you will be sharing the full spectrum of your personality, both the good and the bad, with your teammates.

3) In accordance with this, you will have to learn to love giving and receiving feedback!

How has The Sustainable Innovation MBA helped you?

In addition to all the business tools that we’re learning in class, the social and professional network that we are building for ourselves is substantial. We are creating what will probably be life-long friendships with the other students in our cohort and the depth and breadth of the mentors and connections that the program provides are impressive. We are encouraged to reach out to as many business leaders as we can to conduct informational interviews and it’s really astounding how open people are to talking to students.

Anything else?

This has really been an amazing experience so far. It’s very intense and at times very difficult, but I can already tell that I’ll miss it when it’s over!

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Getting to Know the Class of 2018: Shari Siegel

Shari Siegel ’18 came to The Sustainable Innovation MBA progam with an extensive background in law. She was interviewed by Isabel Russell, an undergraduate at UVM.

Why did you choose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program?

I have been a practicing lawyer in various areas of corporate life and a wildly eclectic number of industries (private investments, finance, airlines, manufacturers, software, telecommunications, real estate, mining, retail, etc.).  Much of what I have done professionally has been interesting, challenging, and often fun, and my experience has given me terrific insight into how all sorts of industries and  businesses work and myriad points of view that may come to bear on a question, but I was ready to make a change and to play a different role.

I believe that business can be a powerful force for good in the world when long-term thinking is put into practice, and I want to be among those who are making that happen.  I really wanted to be able to live a more integrated life.  My professional life has accommodated, but not usually incorporated, other aspects of my life that I am passionate about: building community; creating opportunity for aspiring artists and professionals; and promoting ethical stewardship of our environment and natural resources. Those activities have been limited to volunteering in my “spare” time.

For my “next act,” I’m exploring the use of capital investment and the creation and implementation of long-term business strategies to further creating or contributing to a healthy, sustainable business environment with ample career (not just job) opportunities for those who want them.  The Sustainable Innovation MBA program was a perfect opportunity to take the skills and experience I came to the program with and add new skills and perspectives that will allow me to pivot to a satisfying next step.  The insights I get from my professors and fellow students about aspects of business life that have been outside my focus or areas of responsibility are fascinating, and the opportunity to talk to members of the Vermont business community has been invaluable.  UVM has a robust network that is affording me a terrific opportunity to talk to people about various opportunities to put my new and old skills to work in the way I want to.

What has been your favorite part/element of the program thus far?

The exposure to all of the people who have been working in fields that are very different from my own and living in other places.  Sharing experiences is enlightening.  Variety truly is the spice of life.

What are three things someone considering the program should be aware of?

Expect to work really, really hard–this program crams a lot of content into one year, and the students who are in the program are serious about their learning experience.  That said, we have some pretty extraordinary professors who go above and beyond to make sure we’re really learning the material; a few have even given up some of their own free days to offer extra classes for us.

Teamwork is crucial.

If you come visit us this year and see the construction we’re living through, don’t worry: it’s supposed to be over for the next cohort.

How has the Sustainable Innovation MBA helped you?

It has made me really excited about the possibilities out there.  We’ve also gotten to meet current professionals working in areas we’re studying, tour numerous local businesses and engage in conferences of interest.

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Alumni in Review: Caroline Hauser, Class of 2016

Caroline Hauser ’16 is an Associate Director at Global Evolution. She was interviewed by Isabel Russell, an undergraduate at UVM.

What have you been up to since graduation?

I work in NYC as an Associate Director at Global Evolution, an emerging and frontier markets investment manager. The company is headquartered in Denmark, but I’m out of the NYC office. I like being at a small company because day to day, my job varies significantly. I meet with potential investors, handle client requests, attend conferences, and get to work on a number of exciting side projects as well. For example, in November I planned an impact investing symposium that included speakers from the World Bank, the UN-sponsored Principles for Responsible Investment, and the International Monetary Fund.

Why did you choose to attend this MBA program?

I’d worked at non- and for-profit organizations in the past, and I found the program while searching for an opportunity that combined the mission focus of a non-profit with the resources and structure of a for-profit. I had considered business school for a while, but wanted to find a program that was a good fit for my values. I loved the combination of the innovative curriculum, the small class size, and the opportunity to live in Vermont.

What was your favorite part about the experience?

It’s hard to pull out one favorite piece. The class discussions were consistently engaging and thought-provoking and the small class size provided opportunities to build close relationships with classmates, professors, and guest lecturers. The practicum allowed us to take everything we learned throughout the year and put it into practice in a real world business challenge. As I’m now almost two years out of the program, I’d say my favorite part is the network I built during and since the program that includes a group of people across a broad range of industries that are dedicated to using business as a force for positive change.

How are you applying the tools/skills you learned in the program, post-MBA?

The tools/skills from the program come in handy on a daily basis. One big example is the emphasis on both systems thinking and long-term thinking, as opposed to a focus on short-term shareholder returns. A more specific example is in the fall, I attended the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Conference in Berlin, which focused heavily on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). I attended sessions such as “Social cohesion and inclusive growth: the investment risks and opportunities.” It was energizing to see a large network of leaders so passionate about incorporating sustainability into everyday business, and my experience in The Sustainable Innovation MBA gave me a good knowledge base to jump in to those conversations without feeling like a newcomer to the field.

What would you tell someone who is considering The Sustainable Innovation MBA?

This MBA program emphasizes a global, long-term approach to business strategy, with a core emphasis on the fact that we are all connected and living in a world of finite resources. It will force you to look at business beyond short term success metrics. A manufacturing plant providing jobs in one community may be poisoning the water in another community. A farm that’s feeding thousands could be depleting the soil of nutrients for the next generation. What externalities are we not taking into account when we make business decisions? How will this project look five, ten, or twenty years down the road? What happens to this product at the end of its useful life? How will this organizational change impact employee turnover? We need businesses to start asking the right questions today so that we can create sustainable, regenerative organizations that will positively influence the world for generations to come.

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Vermont’s Sustainable, Innovative Roots

It’s popular to think of the 1960s and 1970s as a time when the hippie and counter-culture movements found and flooded Vermont — “turn on, drop out” and all that.

Lesser known is the history of that time when, although many moved to Vermont to find and build a different way to live, a number also were inspired to find and build a different way to do business. Some of Vermont’s most iconic brands — like Ben & Jerry’s and Burton Snowboards — were born out of this spirit, and have set the standard for an approach to business that emphasizes multiple bottom lines.

The Jogbra, which revolutionized women’s sports and is in the permanent collection at the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Institute, was invented here in Vermont in 1977. One of the inventors, Hinda Miller, is a member of The Sustainable Innovation MBA Advisory Board, and is very active in helping our students think about and launch careers in sustainable, innovative businesses.

Listen to Hinda — trained as a theatrical costume designer — talk about her Vermont entrepreneurial awakening in this podcast produced by the Vermont Historical Society, the Vermont Humanities Council, and VTDigger.

Podcast:  Before Your Time: From communes to commerce

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Alumni in Review: Dana Gulley, Class of 2017

Dana Gulley ’17 is a consultant in private practice. She was the valedictorian of the Class of 2017. She was interviewed by Isabel Russell, an undergraduate at UVM

What have you been up to since graduation?

Making a whole new life for myself! I launched my own consulting practice, Third Peak Solutions, and spent much of the fall working from the road while my partner and I traveled around the west (Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico) figuring out a new place to call home. In November my partner landed a position at a very cool organization called Adventure Scientists and just after Thanksgiving we moved to Bozeman, Montana. After spending 30 years living in the Northeast, moving to big sky country is a pretty big life change. It’s somewhat terrifying, but mostly thrilling. Now that I’m settling into my new home, I’m focused on defining exactly what Third Peak Solutions does: organizational development consulting with conservation non-profits? Sustainable strategy consulting with for-profits? A little bit of both?

Why did you choose to attend this MBA program?

I’m passionate about environmental conservation and eager to see this work improved by a) building more effective and sustainable non-profits and b) engaging the business community to do their part in innovative and impactful ways. The Sustainable Innovation MBA program has the values that match my own and attracts a community of students, faculty and business partners that we must lean into if this important work is going to gain the momentum it deserves.

What was your favorite part about the experience?

Developing relationships with the people in my cohort academically, professionally and personally. As I work to build my own practice, I’m eager to emphasize team work in the way that The Sustainable Innovation MBA modeled it. Working with a team strengthens work products and makes the experience more rewarding.

How are you applying the tools/skills you learned in the program, post-MBA?

I’m taking risks, staying true to my desire to transform business as usual, focused on building teams to tackle big problems, and figuring out how to balance an emphasis on non-profits and for-profits.

What would you tell someone who is considering the Sustainable Innovation MBA?

The program is not for everyone. You will not emerge with a clear set of pre-described next steps for making the world a better place. Instead, you will have a mindset, a network, and a toolkit of skills that will enable you to be entrepreneurial in building your own, unique path forward. The Sustainable Innovation MBA will serve you if you’re someone who is committed to keeping your brain switched on to constantly find better ways to make a difference. It’s a degree for movers and shakers.

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When Things In The Classroom Get “Ruff”

This post was written by Ben Hastings ’18

All dog lovers know the feeling. When you come home from a long day and receive a warm greeting from your four-legged friend – it’s almost as if the stresses of the day melt away with a few wags of the tail and a walk around the block.

Fortunately for us at The Sustainable Innovation MBA, we don’t have to wait until we get home to experience this joy. Meet Willy Wonka, a 3-year-old chocolate lab who has bounded into Kalkin 110 as our 31st classmate during Professor Erik Monsen’s “Crafting the Entrepreneurial Business Model” class.

Throughout the course of the class, our learning teams have come up with various entrepreneurial ventures. One of the most important processes in determining if the venture is viable is mapping out what the value proposition of the company is.

Prior to creating value proposition maps for our entrepreneurial ventures, Dr. Monsen suggested we first practice on Willy Wonka. He was a prime subject for this class exercise. In creating a value proposition map, one needs to ask 3 questions of the business — or in this case, a lovable pooch.

Question: What are the services that he provides (or in this case, what does he do)?

Answer: Enjoys sports (fetch, obstacle courses, etc.), lover of all things outdoors, likes people, loves to eat (hopefully, he doesn’t love to eat people — Editor)

Question: How is Willy a pain reliever?

Answer: Encourages exercise, provides comfort, absorbs negative emotion  and reduces stress, acts as a home security system

Question: How is Willy a gain creator?

Answer: Makes exercise fun, provides opportunities to cuddle, delivers a sense of achievement when he learns tricks

Willy Wonka doesn’t just demonstrate his value around the house. His “dad” is a professor of entrepreneurship, so naturally he has a few different jobs. As a certified therapy dog, Willy Wonka can be seen around campus during exam season providing stress relief to students. When he’s off-campus, you may be able to spot him at your local library, where children read to him. He loves a great story, but it’s hard to know exactly what his favorite genre is. He was even a tester for last year’s cohort’s recycled dog toy company, RePawposed.

I know what you’re thinking: his resume is getting much longer than yours. I think I speak for the rest of the cohort when I say we are all striving to achieve Willy Wonka levels of success.

 

 

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Getting to Know the Class of 2018: Seth Gillim

Seth Gillim ’18 came to The Sustainable Innovation MBA from the Intervale Conservation Nursery, where he was the manager of production, education, and community management. He was interviewed by Isabel Russell, an undergraduate at UVM

Why did you choose to attend The Sustainable Innovation MBA program?

It’s a fantastic opportunity for those seeking to pivot mid-career. Prior to The Sustainable Innovation MBA, I worked in agriculture and non-profits and I had reached a point where opportunities for learning and advancement had flattened out. As a working parent of two young girls, the thought of being in graduate school for years on was overwhelming. The one-year curriculum is perfect for those looking to re-launch their careers quickly.

What has been your favorite part/element of the program thus far?

The teamwork. Nearly every aspect of the program involves group work on some level. This gives you a great opportunity to develop project management and collaborative skills, learn from your classmates, and develop deep and lasting friendships.

What are three things someone considering the program should be aware of?

First, applicants should know that while the program requires an incredible amount of work in a short amount of time, and you will not fail. The professors are all very supportive. Your teammates encourage you and push you to new levels. It’s a unique and special experience to be around so many Type As who are also fully invested in each other’s success and well-being. Second,  Burlington has a very collaborative business ecosystem, which means you can knock on just about anyone’s door and they will talk to you. Successful students schedule a lot of informational interviews and attend networking events. And, third, if you’re not comfortable putting together and giving great presentations in a really tight time frame, you will be.

How has The Sustainable Innovation MBA helped you?

The program forces you to think outside the box and make connections. The coursework and extra-curricular experiences have allowed me to consolidate my various skills and interests into a viable career direction.

Anything else?

I’m really jealous of next year’s cohort, who will enjoy a brand-new building (Ifshin Hall) and expanded facilities.