FEMBA 07 Banquet

More pics ...

Graduation (2007) pictures

Here are some graduation pictures! Fun memories!!!

Can't believe it's more than 4 years ago already

Link to Diana's pictures: http://www.slide.com/r/n530_jKp5z_okLqXL59lf2nAY2dtyyTU?previous_view=TICKER&previous_action=TICKER_ITEM_CLICK&ciid=216172782301797517

Memories :) - Lake Arrowhead Residential

Final Residential (Lake Arrowhead, 2007)

Bringing back memories - Mud Run 2007

It has been a while since I last posted. I do have several updates! It'll take me a while to write it all up but in the meantime, here are some pictures I was able to dig up!

Mud Run, version 3.0 (2007)

Merage is #27 (Financial Times)

In case you missed it, Andy Policano sent an email informing us that the Paul Merage School of Business ranked 27th in the US according the Financial Times. (up from #43 in 2010). They ranked #53 in the Global Rankings.

Here's a link to the full article on the FT website: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings-2011

I'm actually quite impressed as we are preceding schools such as USC-Marshall, UNC-Kenan-Flagler, UWisconsin, Thunderbird. It is quite interesting as I personally still believe we are mostly a "regional" school without a real international footprint. Again, quite impressed and happy about this.

Here's Andy's email:

Dear Merage School Community,

The 2011 Financial Times rankings of the top global 100 Full-Time MBA programs were released last week. I am delighted to announce that The Paul Merage School of Business ranked 27^th in the U.S. up from 43 in 2010. While there are numerous variables that determine each publication's ranking and every survey uses different methodology, this is exciting news and an affirmation of the success of the initiatives we set into place over the last few years. I have outlined a few reasons for our rankings increase below, but I would also like to congratulate all of the Faculty and Staff in the Full-Time MBA program and the Career Center for their focused efforts over the past few years.

The biggest factor in this ranking is the average increase in salary pre-MBA to three years post-graduation. The Merage School rose from 65^th in 2010 to 23^rd globally and 11th in the U.S for 2011. Our strategy has been to work with our corporate partners to identify exactly what type of graduate will be most competitive in the job market; we then strategically admit students who will best meet those needs. We have also enhanced our curriculum with a keen eye toward strategic innovation and global competitiveness. In the process, our ranking of international mobility has risen from 88^th in 2010 to 53^rd globally and 8th in the U.S.

Finally, I would like to note that we tied for 9^th in the U.S. for the percentage of faculty with a doctorate degree and tied for 2^nd globally for the percentage of women on our faculty.

As a leading business school, we continue to define our vision and differentiate our programs; we graduate business leaders who have the exceptional ability to help grow their organizations, compete in the global economy and excel in the marketplace. Clearly, we continue to be recognized as one of the top public university business schools in the U.S., not only by the rankings publications, but by our students, alumni, recruiters and peers.

With congratulations and warmest regards,


Andrew J. Policano, Dean

Jonah Trinidad Dang

Our dear Sofia just had a baby! I exchanged a few messages with her the day before she was due and was waiting in anticipation on the happy news and a few more details.. I know she must have been swamped these past few weeks, but as I checked my facebook account today, I found a posting of the birth of Jonah Trinidad Dang, Born 1-11-11.

Sofia already submitted his application to be the first member of Merage FEMBA 2025 class!!!

Welcome Jonah! We can't wait to meet you.

Feb 9, 2011 - Update

Sofia just posted the following video on Facebook and I just had to repost this video. It's just too cute!

Vu's little Tiger, Minuet Quyen Hong

I received the following cool & exciting update from Vu & Christine today. Seems that our FEMBA07A Merage family keeps on growing!!! I wonder what the count is today? Perhaps one of the next projects is to create a Merage family tree???

"I admit I've been out of touch this past year and my excuse is Minuet Quyen Hong who was born on 3/3/10.

The entire 2010 year pretty much blew right by me, but it was a wonderful year. One of the first questions we get asked is how did we decide on her name. We still hadn't settle on a name when she was born and obviously had to have one now to put on the birth certificate. Luckily I had my laptop with me

and decided to look up music terminology since Christine is a big Mozart fan. We came across Minuet and after looking on Youtube for several compositions I found one that I loved. We were now both leaning towards settling on Minuet for her name, but the real clincher was when my sister visited us at the hospital that night and mentioned that she recently watched an episode of Star Trek where one of the characters was named Minuet. Being the geek that I am I thought that was fantastic and surely a sign that Minuet is the perfect name for my daughter."

Vu also keeps a blog that tracks Minuet's every step ... To follow Vu's blog and many more pictures and hilarious comments, visit http://minuettiger.blogspot.com/

I picked some of my favorite and posted them below.

Other pictures:

Lucas Chiachi Lee

More birth announcements from the past few months! Got this message from James Lee back in October:

"Two little hands, Two little feet, ... now our family is delightfully complete"

James, Evelyn and Kaden welcome Lucas as the latest addition to their family!!! That's probably a reason why we have seen so little of James recently. He's had his hands full. Well, Lucas was born on October 3, 2010. He measured 19.5 inches (I think this is the exact same length as Aakash) and he weighed in at 7 lbs, 4 oz.

We hope to see more pictures soon. Congrats Lee family!!

Register for Professor McKenzie's retirement reception

There was an announcement in the latest version of the Merage Minute regarding Professor McKenzie's retirement. There will be a reception on Sunday May 22. There are a few of us who already registered to attend. It would be nice to see some of you there, but remember to RSVP!!!

Here's the message from the Merage newsletter:

Bid Farewell to Professor McKenzie at a Retirement Reception

Sunday, May 22, 2-4 pm
University Hills Community Center, Irvine

Join past classmates, alumni, faculty, staff and current students as we send Professor Richard McKenzie off with a warm celebration of his 20 years with the Paul Merage School of Business! After many years of hard work and dedication, Professor Richard McKenzie is taking a permanent vacation, and we wish him the best! This event is free, but capacity is limited so you must RSVP in advance to attend.

Aakash Parikh

Since I just started my blog last week, there are many events that I have not yet captured. I'm hoping for some submissions of course that can help me fill the gaps, but in the meantime, I'll try to post some of the events that I am aware of from the last few years.

Here is one such notice.

Back on August 25 at 5:52am, Sneha and Ajay welcomed their second son, Aakash. His name is pronounced Ah-Kah-Sh, which means Sky. He was born a healthy 7 lbs and measured 19.5 inches.

FYI: Sneha and Ajay's first son is named Ankur (the handsome guy is in one of the pictures below)

More pictures:

Trevor's new and exciting endeavor: WoollyPocket

This past week I received a sudden email from Trevor telling me that he changed his phone number as he had taken a new job. However, he did not provide any further details in that email, so I sent him a quick message and he replied with the following note:

"Started at a startup named WoollyPocket. Am at conference in Atlanta and it is blowing up!!!"

Intrigued, I went to their website (http://www.woollypocket.com/), and I love the concept! Essentially, it is gardening for all those areas where gardening would not be possible. Remember, I grew up in the middle of an urban city and I never had a garden of my own, so this would have been great to cultivate my green thumb. Jacquelyn and I recently talked about submitting for a plot at a local community garden, but this could be a good alternative! We're very curious to try it.

I'm sure Trevor will help this company reach the next level! I'm excited to learn more about it.

Update from Trevor (Jan 16):

We have some crazy ambitious goals, but I will say that the response from the top garden centers in the nation has been incredible, and we're well on our way to spreading this concept throughout the US and UK.

Right now I'm in Atlanta and will be back in LA next week to launch it in all Armstrong Garden Centers (so you Cali folk will be seeing it on their shelves within the next 60-90 days), and then to Kentucky for a week (Bullman, can you swing by?) and then possibly bay area and Seattle before Valentine's Day. Fun, but CRAZY!

Joshua Alexander Cheng

Last week our MBA family just grew by 1. Jina and Tommy joyfully welcomed in Joshua Alexander Cheng!

Joshua was born on January 7, 2011 and came in at 8lbs 3oz. Of note, Joshua now shares a birthday with Laith Salih!!!

Both parents are doing great, but I am sure they have their hands full. We hope to see them all soon.

Additional pictures:

For even more pictures, click here

Natasha Khrushova (Section C) - Real Estate Specialist

While the primary purpose of my blog is to ensure my section classmates stay connected, I would of course welcome others and expand the audience. So, my hope is that this blog can facilitate communication amongst others FEMBA 07'ers and perhaps even beyond.

In that light ... I got an email recently from Natasha Khrushova (Section C). She has ventured out of corporate America to explore a career in real estate. It sounds both exciting and challenging, and she's looking forward to the learning experience and conquering this new realm of business. It is of course not a giant leap from her finance and investment background, but the challenge is the change from spending all my time with numbers, charts and graphs, to actually talking to people and helping them with one of the most important decisions in their lives: buying or selling a home.

As she embarks on this new career, keep Natasha in mind if you or a friend needs help with a real estate transaction or issue. She'll be excited to hear from you and happy to assist them to the best of her ability.

Her contact info is below.

Natasha Khrushova

Residential and Foreclosure Specialist

Cell: (562) 260-5769

Email: natasha@natasha4realestate.com

Website: natasha4realestate.com

Chris Maeoka & Ed Har Wedding

The first submission for a blog entry comes from ... Chris & Ed.

As some of you might have heard, Chris & Ed got married about 1.5 years ago on August 30, 2009 at a gorgeous ceremony at Seagrove park in Del Har (somewhere in Del Mar). Afterwards, the rooftop reception was held on the top of the La Jolla Cove Suites.

And the theme song of the night was "I Gotta Feelin'" from the BEP. Yes, we can now all date ourselves to 2009 with that song :)

Additional pictures:

Professor Richard McKenzie retiring

I have a current colleague at Mattel who recently started his MBA at Merage and he joined FEMBA13 Section A. I can't imagine having to go to class for the next 3 years!

Of course, every FEMBA journey starts with MicroEcon with McKenzie. Then, when I asked him whether he had visited Home Depot yet for the research on his "sod" paper was going, he mentioned that Professor McKenzie is retiring at the end of this year.

So I quickly looked it up on the Merage website and it is confirmed. Anybody want to go? Below is the transcript of the notification:

Sunday, May 22, 2010

2:00 pm till 4:00 pm

University Hills Community Center

Join past classmates, alumni, faculty, staff and current students as we send Professor McKenzie off with a warm celebration of his 20 years with the Paul Merage School of Business! After many years of hard work and dedication, Professor Richard McKenzie is taking a permanent vacation, and we wish him the best!

We’ll drink and laugh as we all reminisce; it’s a gathering for a friend that will surely be missed!

This event is free, but you must RSVP now to attend. Resort Casual Dress

Another blog?

Another blog?

Yup.

Why create another blog?

Well, it has been three and half years ago since we graduated from our MBA program and we have all moved on with our personal lives. After those three intense years of class, we all had to catch up with those other activities in life such as marriage, kids and even grandkids!

You will agree that we've been slowly losing touch with one another, and it would not have gotten any better with the status quo. Again ... it is not completely unexpected, and as I personally embark on the next phase of my life as a father, I am sure that some of my own social activities will change to play dates and kid's birthday parties. In the end, we pursued our MBA not only for the educational aspect, but also for the networking opportunities. And this is something we can all leverage more!

So I wanted to created a method for us all to stay in touch and to keep abreast of all our life changes. At the end of our program, I had created a user group on Yahoo!, but that's been hijacked by some spammers - and I apologize if you've gotten emails about breast/penis enlargements, Nigerian war treasures or Snuggies.

This is now my new attempt. I will personally blog of any Merage related news I hear of. I will also blog about major events regarding any classmates and ask you all to contribute. If you wish to share, then I will gladly post it. Just send a little write-up and any pictures to aho07@merage.uci.edu.