Alumni

Dean Puto Urges Connection, Action and Interaction

Eighty-five alumni from the Executive UST MBA program gathered at the Opus College of Business on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, for the all-cohort reunion.

In his welcoming remarks, Chris Puto, Ph.D., dean of the Opus College of Busines, highlighted a few of the many events designed to connect alumni to job opportunities, the college and each other. He also urged alumni to become more involved in the Graduate Business Alumni group, thereby ensuring the value of the UST MBA brand and their own success. His full speech follows.

It is my pleasure to welcome you back to the Opus College of Business. Knowing the quality of our Executive MBA program, I am certain that your careers since you received your MBA have been successful and rewarding.

Earning an MBA is a significant accomplishment. But earning an Executive UST MBA places you among a select group of individuals who realize the importance of ethical leadership, of looking beyond the bottom line to make your companies not just profitable in the short-term but prosperous in the long-term. And by prosperous, I mean that you have dedicated yourselves to ensuring your organizations are good corporate citizens that respect their employees, their customers, their communities, and the environment—all of the elements that go into being highly principled global business leaders.

The fact that you have gathered here tonight is testament to your positive experience in the UST Executive MBA program and to your ongoing commitment to our College and your colleagues. I want to take a moment to ask you to consider this commitment and find ways you might be able to enhance it.

Over the past several years the Opus College of Business has devoted itself to building a Graduate Business Alumni office that keeps alumni connected to the college and its current students. We do this in many important ways.

First, the Graduate Business Alumni office hosts networking events throughout the year. These are designed to provide alumni with the chance to connect with colleagues from different fields and industries, as well as potential partners in the business community. Our next event is scheduled for May 14 and is called Thriving through Job Transition.  Amy Lindgren, president and founder of Prototype Career Service, a 25-year-old St. Paul firm specializing in helping people in job and career transition, will share her industry expertise relating to job and career transitions. The evening’s activities will include the opportunity for you to attend two breakout sessions, followed by a networking reception with fellow OCB alumni.

Be sure to check the Web site for information about more events this spring and summer.  In every case, our goal is to provide an evening of substantive value for busy professionals while also offering strong networking opportunities.

Perhaps some of the more relevant services available to you, especially in light of today’s economy, are Graduate Business Career Services.  Among the many services available are:   one-on-one career coaching and mentoring, and finding as well as posting employment and internship opportunities. This last aspect – posting employment and internship opportunities – is one tangible way you can give back to the Opus College of Business by offering our current students and recent graduates the first step in building their careers.

As an alumnus, you also receive invitations to exclusive events such as the Masters’ Connection and First Friday Luncheon series, each providing more networking opportunities as well as the chance to hear local figures address important issues affecting your careers and your personal lives.

I also want to remind you that you are entitled to a substantial discount on courses through our Executive Education and Professional Development Division. Whether you wish to refresh a certain skill set or learn a new methodology, you can do so with these programs designed to enhance the leadership capacity of current and emerging leaders.

Up until now, I’ve been talking about some of the more tangible benefits available to you as an alumnus of the Opus College of Business. But being part of this alumni community gives you more than discounts or the opportunity to network with colleagues. It allows you to shape the community in which we all live and work. 

You may have seen some of the college’s recent advertising boasting of our 17,000 alumni. This figure is not an exaggeration and is the key to our current strength and future growth. Our alumni are in all 50 states and around the world. You work in Fortune 500 companies, small start-ups and nonprofits. Can you imagine the influence of this network if each and every one of you were actively engaged in the alumni community? I can – and it is one of the goals my colleagues and I are most passionate about.

Because the stronger our alumni community is, the stronger our brand becomes. The stronger our brand becomes, the more you benefit by increased recognition of the value of your degree and the expertise you bring to any situation. This increase in value then allows us to recruit highly-qualified, high-potential students to our programs, making the classroom experience even more rewarding and rigorous than it already is. The end result is a diverse and engaged community of highly-principled global business leaders.

So I encourage each and every one of you to consider ways in which you can become more engaged with the Opus College of Business. Attend a networking event. Host an event at your place of business. Join the Graduate Business Alumni Board and help shape its direction. Act as a mentor to a current graduate business student. Offer an internship to a UST MBA candidate or undergraduate business major.

But most importantly, I encourage you to do something that may be a little out of character for you:  Brag about your success. Tell your colleagues and business partners and peers about the experience you had in the Executive UST MBA program, how it affected your career and continues to impact your life. For no matter what we print in a brochure, post on a Web site, or write on a billboard, the simple fact remains that you are our best recruiters and the best examples of what it means to be an Opus College of Business graduate business alumnus.

Thank you for your time – and enjoy the rest of the program.

Chris Puto, Ph.D.
Dean, Opus College of Business
April 21, 2009