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FOR THE WEEKS OF FEBRUARY 23 AND MARCH 2 NOBEL LAUREATE TO SPEAK AT ROTMAN SCHOOL Myron Scholes, the co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, is coming to the Rotman School on Mar. 26 to help launch the Centre for Finance Studies. His presentation will also be the inaugural event of the Rotman School of Management Great Minds for Great Business Lecture Series. Prof. Scholes will discuss "Derivatives in a Dynamic Environment." All faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the lecture and the following reception. Prof. Scholes, the Frank E. Buck Professor, Emeritus, at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business was awarded the Nobel Prize for developing a new method to determine the value of derivatives. He shares the award with Prof. Robert Merton of Harvard Business School. The formula was developed by Prof. Scholes with the late Prof. Fischer Black and first published in the Journal of Political Economy in May 1973. The formula was further developed by Prof. Merton who showed its broad applicability. The Black-Scholes options pricing model has become the benchmark formula for the valuation of stock options. Today thousands of investors and traders use the formula every day to value stock options in markets around the world. Prof. Scholes, a native of Timmins, Ontario, graduated from McMaster University in 1961 before completing his MBA and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He was on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1983 to 1996 and was also a professor of law at the Stanford Law School. Prior to that, he was a faculty member at MIT and at the University of Chicago. He retired from Stanford last year to serve as principal and limited partner of Long-Term Capital Management, a Connecticut investment management firm he co-founded in 1994. The firm specializes in the development and application of sophisticated financial technology for investment managers. In 1992, while still at Stanford, Prof. Scholes was named a managing director of Salomon Brothers and then co-head of its fixed-income derivative sales and trading department. He left Salomon in 1993. Aside from his seminal work in options pricing and the pricing of corporate liabilities, Prof. Scholes is also known for his work on the effects of global tax policies on decision making. CENTRE FOR FINANCE STUDIES The lecture by Prof. Scholes marks the launch of the Centre for Finance Studies at the Rotman School of Management. The CentreÕs mission is to work closely with the business community to share the results of the high quality relevant research in finance at the Rotman School, and to support new research in finance. GREAT MIND FOR GREAT BUSINESS LECTURE SERIES The Great Minds for Great Business Lecture Series, which brings eminent thinkers, scholars, and business leaders to the Rotman School of Management, is designed to stimulate serious discussion of today's important issues in management and business. The series is also a celebration of the Rotman School and its vision of national pre-eminence and international distinction in management education. It is supported by the generous gift of Sandra and Joseph L. Rotman, in whose honour the School was renamed in 1997. This event is the first of the series. IMPROVEMENTS IN SERVICES FOR MBA STUDENTS During Reading Week staff offices and student rooms on the first and second floors of the Rotman Centre were rearranged to improve the services offered to MBA students. A one-stop "help desk" will be created on the second floor for MBA students. This new help desk will be accessible from the MBA lounge via a counter into room 207. A Student Service Representative (SSR) will be hired to staff the help desk. The SSR will assist students with transcripts, add/drop forms, copies of exams, letters of confirmation, statements of results, student cards, program changes, course selection, waiting lists, address changes, OSAP forms, other financial aid information, and computer accounts. Renovations to create the help desk will take place in early March. Until then, students should use the main building reception desk as before. After the renovations, students will be directed to the MBA lounge for help with all of their program needs. To support the help desk activities, Calvin Lee (Assistant Registrar) and Michelle Petersen-Lee (Records Clerk) have moved to the second floor (into rooms 204 and 206 respectively). They join Margaret Bauer (Program Services Assistant) and Catherine Lewis (Director, Program Services and Registrar) in providing service to students. To make room on the second floor for Calvin and Michelle, Almira Mun (Assistant Director, Recruiting and Admissions) has moved to the first floor and joins the two Admissions Officers, Chris Wilhelm and Audia Marin, in the area behind the main reception desk. A Recruiting Assistant, currently Charlene Black, will staff the main reception desk. This Admissions and Recruiting group will serve MBA Program applicants and information seekers from their location on the first floor. Also to make room for Calvin and Michelle, Glen Whyte has moved to his faculty office (room 543) on the fifth floor. His term as Executive Director of the MBA program ends June 30th, 1998. Gerri Laforme will continue in the role of Building Receptionist at the first floor main building reception desk (opposite Charlene), and continue to assist all building occupants (including students) with room bookings (including study rooms), courier service, pass cards and locker rentals. Grace Raposo continues to manage our International Exchange Programs from her first floor office, room 108. The student clubs executive office has moved from room 214A into room 270 (formerly the Ph.D. computer lab by the library entrance). The Graduate Business Council is now located in room 214A. COMPUTER SECURITY ALERT One of the computer servers at the Rotman School has been broken into from an outside attacker via the Internet. The Unix server handles the School's e-mail and web service. The intruder, while denied access to the entire system, did manage to download the Rotman Centre's password file. "This is a serious problem,"wrote Larry Harrison, director, information technology, in an e-mail memo to staff and faculty, "Most people have the same username/password on the mail system (UNIX) and the PC network." Additional security measures have been implemented to secure the system. Users with passwords that are easily decrypted or use Telnet or Rlogin to access their e-mail should have their passwords changed. Passwords muse be 6 to 8 characters (alphanumeric) long and must have at least 1 capital letter or 1 number. Passwords cannot be proper words, names, or places as these are the easiest to decrypt. External access to the UNIX server has been restricted. Authorized users must supply the IP number of the host they are using. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Larry Harrison, manager, information technology at 978-7427 or Patrick Aspinall at the Computer Help Desk at 971-2981. Last month Harrison was interviewed by Computer Canada on the security problems caused by computer hackers for IT managers. DEAN'S TOWN HALL MEETING FOR P/T MBA STUDENTS Students in the part-time MBA program have the opportunity to meet with Dean Halpern and Harvey Kolodny, director, part time MBA program on Feb. 23 at 8 pm. It will be an opportunity for students to get the latest on the coming changes in tuition fees for the next academic year. MBA BUSINESS CONFERENCE TICKETS AVAILABLE Tickets for the U of T 1998 MBA Business Conference are now available and are selling fast. The conference will be held on Friday, Mar. 6 at the Design Exchange in downtown Toronto. The theme will be "Competing in the Global Market: A Canadian Perspective". The discussion will focus on how Canada's present and future business leaders can make or have made the most of business opportunities around the world. An excellent panel has been assembled to lead the discussion including:
Julia Gluck, director, Johnston Smith International, will serve as the master of ceremonies The event is entirely organized by MBA students and has typically attracted a mixture of MBA students and business leaders. To purchase tickets, please contact Youmna Abdou, MBA'98, or Natasha Samuels, MBA'98, at 978-6733. UNILEVER SPEAKER SERIES ANNUAL COCKTAIL ANNOUNCED "Marketing in the 1990's and Beyond" is the theme of this year's Unilever Speaker Series Annual Cocktail on Mar. 19. Speakers, to be confirmed, include:
The event gets underway with cocktails at 6 pm at the Hotel Intercontinental followed by speakers at 7 pm. For more information, contact Jane Gulian, MBA'98, at 487-7198. NEWSMAKERS A study co-authored by Scott Hawkins, assistant professor of marketing, and Prof. Sridhar Moorthy of the University of Rochester was mentioned in the Feb. 14 issue of The Economist. The working paper, " Repetition and Quality Perceptions," suggests the signaling theory in advertising may be wrong. Prof. Joe D'Cruz, director of the EMBA program, was quoted in an article in the Globe andMail's Report on Business section on Feb. 18. A recent decision by Revenue Canada may require employees to pay taxes on the cost of courses paid for by their employers. Prof. D'Cruz worries that this decision could discourage applicants to the EMBA program. Currently an estimated two-thirds of Rotman School EMBA students have their training paid for by their companies. Dan Ondrack, professor of organizational behaviour was quoted in a Feb. 19 article in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business section. The article dealt with the new trend by business to hire executives from outside their own talent pool and even their own industries to replace the person at the top.
FACULTY NEWS A study, co-authored by Donald Brean, associate professor of finance and business economics, and Jeremy Leonard of the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) was published this month by IRPP. "Technology, Taxation and Canada's Competitiveness," argues that Canada's research and development policy is out of touch with current realities. According to the authors, it is time to reexamine both the rational for and the effectiveness of R&D tax incentives. The study has received considerable media coverage including an article in the Feb. 15 edition of the Montreal Gazette. Prof. Brean also authored an article in Corporate Finance, vol. 4 no. 4, entitled "The Deductibility of Financing Costs to Finance Investments in Foreign Enterprises."
Martin Evans, professor of organizational behaviour, served as a Winspear Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria (BC) earlier this year. He gave a talk to faculty and students on "The Impact of Downsizing on Managerial Careers" based on his work with Hugh Gunz, associate professor of organizational behaviour, and R. Michael Jalland, associate professor of strategic management. Dan Ondrack, professor of organizational behaviour, spoke to the annual conference of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario on Feb. 18 in Toronto. His topic was"Staffing a New International Operation." Prof. Ondrack will give a similar presentation to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of Hong Kong on Feb. 25. In addition, he will be promoting the launch of the Rotman School-McGill alliance in executive programs in Hong Kong. STAFF CHANGES Harvey Kolodny, professor of organizational behaviour, has been appointed the director of the part-time MBA program. Catherine Lewis, associate director of the MBA program, has also been named director, program services. In this new capacity both MBA program and registrarial staff will report to her. Suresh Sethi, professor of operations management, will be returning to the Rotman School beginning July 1. Welcome to Alison Ground who started work on Feb.2 as the program coordinator, open enrolment programs, executive development programs. She comes to the Rotman School from Coopers & Lybrand where she was the coordinator, national in-house programs. UPCOMING EVENTS
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