Thunder News: October 2009

Class Reunion Leaders Needed - Thunderbird Homecoming 2010
Has it been too long since you've seen your classmates? Mark your calendars for Thunderbird Homecoming - March 25-28, 2010. Thunderbirds from across the globe will gather in Glendale to reconnect with old friends. Make sure your class is the center of attention! Contact the Alumni Relations Office to start planning your class reunion during the 2010 Homecoming event. We will work with you to design a custom reunion experience. Any graduating class year is welcome. Call or e-mail today: 602-978-7358 or alumni@thunderbird.edu

Thunderbird Tower Groundbreaking Ceremony & Celebration
Please join us on the Glendale campus Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. for the Thunderbird Tower groundbreaking ceremony and celebration. Thanks to generous contributions from Merle Hinrichs '65 and many other Thunderbird supporters, the student initiated Tower restoration effort has raised over 80% of the $2.5 million needed for a full renovation. Will Counts '08 is project manager for the restoration. When completed, the Tower will be home to a student union, the Thunderbird Pub, the ThunderShop and an alumni/veterans gallery.

Click here for more on the Groundbreaking Ceremony.
Click here for more on the Tower restoration efforts.

Executive education discount and tuition credits offered
Thunderbird alumni who enroll in an executive education certificate program receive a 50 percent discount. Also, participants in executive education classes or online certificate program can now apply registration and course fees toward the tuition of one of Thunderbird's degree programs. To learn more about this offer, please contact Joe Patterson '08 at joe.patterson@thunderbird.edu

Archived bulletins now available on MTB Thunderbird
Archives compiled and scanned school bulletins from the past seven decades. If you are interested in the academic calendar or in what classes were offered while you were a student, please click here to view the archive page on MTB. If you need help accessing MTB, please contact the Alumni Relations Office at 602-978-7358 or alumni@thunderbird.edu

ThunderCares Day goes global
Thunderbird students and alumni around the world did their part in September to improve their communities during the inaugural Global ThunderCares Day. T-birds in Los Angeles helped pick up trash along Redondo Beach. Hong Kong alumni helped Crossroads Foundation inspect computer monitors and pack them for shipment to schools in Kazakhstan and Uganda. And students, alumni and other volunteers in Arizona donated their time at a food bank, an animal shelter, a charter school and six other locations.

Kelly O'Dea '72 elected Chairman of Thunderbird Board of Trustees: Kelly O'Dea, chairman and CEO of AllianceHPL Worldwide, was elected chairman of Thunderbird's Board of Trustees at the October board meeting held on the Glendale campus. Kelly joined the Board of Trustees in 2000, the same year he received the Thunderbird Alumni Association award for Marketing Excellence. As chairman, he will be responsible for overall leadership of the Board. He formerly served as the vice chairman of the Board and as chairman of the Corporate Learning committee. He succeeds David H. Roberts '73 who stepped down as chairman at the October meeting. This marks the first time that the board chairmanship has passed from one T-bird alum to another.

"It's both an honor and challenge to serve as chairman in this exciting era where the forces of globalization and technology innovation will forever change the face and future of 21st century education," Kelly said. "Thunderbird has long been a recognized leader in global education and is ready to carry on this legacy."

Kelly's company, The Alliance for High Performance Leadership Worldwide, which he founded in 2004, is a global strategic advice and applied innovation firm. He is a recognized strategy and marketing expert who has advised global companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Shell, Samsung, Boeing, Ford, Jaguar, Lenovo, Fujitsu, AT&T and Unilever. He has long been an active Thunderbird supporter in a variety of capacities. Like many T-birds, he has lived overseas at various time in his career.

Kelly believes in giving back, and devotes much of his public service time to the fields of education and politics. He has been working with Outward Bound International for more than 25 years. From 2003 - 2009, he was chairman of the organization and created their innovative Global Leaders for a Better Tomorrow program. He has also served as senior advisor to American Solutions, a non-partisan citizen action network founded by Newt Gingrich, and been involved in development of economic and energy policy. He lectures at leading graduate schools, including Thunderbird, and is a regular speaker and commentator on global marketing, technology, new media and change leadership issues.

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Faculty to Alumni webcast presentation - Oct. 20, 2009 1:00 p.m. ET: We are pleased to announce the first webcast in the 2009/2010 series: Global Recovery: What to Expect? with Thunderbird Professor F. John Mathis, Ph.D. Professor Mathis will share his expertise in the financial sector and discuss what changes in the economy we might see in the coming year.

Last year, more than 400 alumni tuned in to view "Thoughts on Wall Street" and "Recovery from the Financial Crisis" webcasts presented by Professor Mathis, director of the Thunderbird Global Financial Services Center. The Faculty to Alumni Webcast Series offers T-bird alumni a way to stay connected to the school and its faculty and to extend learning beyond graduation.

Please join us to learn more about this timely topic. To submit questions for the faculty, please e-mail alumni@thunderbird.edu. You may e-mail questions anytime including during the webcast. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Janet Chicvara at 602-978-7358 or janet.chicvara@thunderbird.edu.

Click here on Oct 20 to join the webcast*
mms://thunderbirduni.wmlive.internapcdn.net/
live_thunderbirduni_vitalstream_com_AlumniStream

* Webcast link will only be available on Oct 20 at 1:00 PM EDT, 10:00 AM Glendale, 18:00 London

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Global partners to educate women entrepreneurs in Peru: Thunderbird School of Global Management is continuing its commitment to the training of women entrepreneurs in developing countries with the announcement today of the school's participation in "Strengthening Women Entrepreneurship in Peru."

The global partnership, which will help more than 100,000 women launch and grow their small or micro enterprises in their homeland, is being funded by more than $7 million in grants from the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank; Peru's leading microfinance institution Mibanco S.A.; the Australian government; and Goldman Sachs Group.

The project, which seeks to address the lack of educational training tailored to the needs of women entrepreneurs, will have two tracks: one for women micro entrepreneurs and another for women small business owners. The program will be part of Thunderbird's philanthropic arm, Thunderbird for Good, which specializes in customized business training for women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

MiBanco will work with Thunderbird to develop SALTA (Spanish for jump), a large-scale training program for micro entrepreneurs in all regions of the country. The seminars will focus on improving business processes and product lines as well as provide financial and human resource management training. The project will reach out to the clients of all microfinance institutions in Peru, and other Latin American micro lenders will be encouraged to use the resulting training program, which will be available for public use.

In addition, Thunderbird will collaborate with a Peruvian university to develop a certificate program for women small business owners. This part of the project is a partnership with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, a global effort to provide underserved women around the world with high-quality business and management education. The program in Peru builds on Thunderbird's existing Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program in Afghanistan as well as the school's highly successful Project Artemis Afghanistan and SEEDS (Supporting Entrepreneurs and Enterprise Development Seminar) program for women entrepreneurs in Jordan, which launches next month.

The Multilateral Investment Fund, an autonomous fund administered by the IDB, has been a major supporter of microfinance innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1993. The IDB is the leading source of long-term financing for economic and social development in this region.

"Investing in the education and economic empowerment of women in developing countries not only improves the lives of the women themselves, but enriches the entire community and contributes to the sustainable prosperity of those countries as a whole," says Dr. Ángel Cabrera, president of Thunderbird. "Our goal is to change lives and create lasting benefit. This truly global partnership, allows us to unite with leading financial institutions who share this goal and are deeply committed to realizing our vision of a better world through education and opportunity."

Half of Peru's GDP is generated by small and microenterprises, and women head more than 40 percent of these companies. Peru is one of only two countries in the world in which women are more likely to start a business than men.

"Investing in these women makes good business sense for the Peruvian economy and for the microfinance industry," said MIF General Manager Julie T. Katzman. "Building women's business skills will lead to the improvement of millions of livelihoods, create much needed jobs and raise the living conditions of many low-income households in the country."

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Features for October 2009

News Briefs

Chapter News

Knowledge Network

Thunderbird Making Headlines

October Features (continued)

FEATURED VIDEO

Social Networking

Calendar

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