International Environmental Leaders Address Forest Conservation At MIIS

When: Saturday, April 25, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (reception following)

Where: Irvine Auditorium

Guest speakers including Dr. Dick Rice, chief economist of Conservation International; Chris LaFranchi, founder of Natural Equity; Stephan Schwartzman, the Director of the Tropical Forest Policy Program at Environmental Defense Fund; and Keegan Eisenstadt, CEO of ClearSky Climate Solutions LLC will participate in a series of panel discussions focused on the central role of forest conservation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Other conference themes will include biodiversity conservation, indigenous rights, carbon markets and climate change.

MBA Program Chair Announced

Dean-designate Yuwei Shi announced today that Dr. Bruce Paton will be the Chair of the Fisher Program in International Business (Fisher International MBA). The decision has been made after deliberation and consultation with President Sunder Ramaswamy, Provost Amy Sands, the Fisher Faculty and Staff, and the incoming Program Chairs of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management.

Dr. Paton is Visiting Associate Professor of Sustainable Business and Strategy at the Monterey Institute. He is Associate Professor at San Francisco State University’s College of Business, where he teaches courses on corporate social responsibility and sustainable business at undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. He was named the Teaching Professor of the Year for the College of Business in 2005. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at Monterey Institute since 2002. Dr. Paton has been actively involved in curriculum reform at SF State. He served on a Dean’s Taskforce on Graduate Programs that led to streamlined MBA program requirements. He also chaired the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee during its preparation for the AACSB’s re-accreditation process. Dr. Paton currently serves as Board Chair for Sustainable Silicon Valley, a collaboration of nearly 100 businesses, cities, and community organizations that works to focus the region’s leaders on its most important environmental challenges and opportunities. He also serves on the International Planning Board for the Greening of Industry Network, and on the editorial board for the Journal, Business Strategy and Environment.

Dr. Paton focuses his research on business strategies and public policies for sustainability, especially the development of methods for designing and evaluating voluntary and collaborative initiatives to address social and environmental issues in management. His research and teaching draw on more than twenty years of decision-making experience in industry, government and higher education, including the District of Columbia government, an environmental policy consulting firm, Hewlett-Packard, and a Silicon Valley startup. He also served for two years as Director of Admissions for the MBA Program at Stanford University. Dr. Paton holds a BA in Environmental Science from Wesleyan University, an MBA from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Running “One MIIS”

Following up on discussions at the community-wide retreats at the end of February, President Ramaswamy, Provost Sands, and the deans-designate who will assume office in June announced a series of task forces to ensure smooth implementation of a new, streamlined administrative model for the Institute.

The One MIIS Working Group is assigned the task of analyzing and making recommendations on organizational and infrastructural issues regarding

• the reorganization into two schools
• the transition to full integration with Middlebury in 2010

We plan to approach this task by holding Community Feedback Sessions on each of the following topics: Advancement, HR, Admissions, Communications, Student/Academic Info Systems, Technology, Physical and Financial Resources, and Maintenance of Accreditation. The administrator(s) responsible for each of these areas will prepare a draft report that analyzes current practices, raises unanswered questions, and outlines possible changes needed for a smooth rollout of the reorganization in Fall 2009, and for integration with Middlebury in June 2010. Each of these drafts will be the topic of a Community Feedback Session:

The schedule of Community Feedback Sessions is as follows:

May 5  –  Advancement
May 19  –  HR
June 2  –  Communications
June 16  –  Admissions
June 30  –  Maintenance of Accreditation
July 14  –  Technology
July 28  –  Physical and Financial Resources
August 11  –  Student/Academic Info Systems

(All sessions from 12:15 – 1:30, locations TBA.)

All members of the Institute community are invited to attend and participate in these sessions, providing feedback to improve the drafts before they are added to a master set of recommendations to be assembled by the middle of August. Since much of the work will be done during the summer, we will post all report drafts to the Reorganization website for comment by faculty and students who wish to participate virtually. We believe this process will not only produce better reorg implementation plans in all departments, but will also provide an opportunity for each of us to understand and appreciate the work of our colleagues in other departments, creating stronger bonds of collaboration across the Institute.

Questions?  Contact Amy McGill