Author: Neil Schoenherr

Stephen M. Nowlis, PhD, was installed Feb. 23 as the August A. Busch Jr. Distinguished Professor of Marketing in Olin Business School. Nowlis joined Olin Business School in July 2010 after spending many years at Arizona State University, where he was the AT&T Distinguished Professor of Marketing.

The kick-off event for MBA student Mike McLaughlin’s 2,500-mile six-month back-to-back through-hike of the Appalachian and Ozark trails to raise money for the St. Louis Family Resource Center and a school for neglected blind children in Cameroon, Africa will be held Feb. 24.

Mike McLaughlin has had a difficult life. The MBA student at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis was emotionally and physically abused as a child at the hands of his mother and stepfather — a tragedy in its own right but one in which he says helped prepare him for his next big challenge: through-hiking the Appalachian and Ozark trails back-to-back.

Will stock in Facebook, which recently filed for initial public offering (IPO), drop significantly following the end of its IPO lock-up period later this year? It might if the company follows recent trends, finds a new study by graduate students at Washington University in St. Louis.

The American public exhibits deep partisan divisions about the direction that federal fiscal policy should take, finds a new national survey from the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis. The American Panel Survey will take place monthly, and will measure shifts in attitudes over time.

Mike McLaughlin, MBA student Olin Business School, will spend the day in a hammock Feb. 15, doing homework, reading and raising funds and awareness for his 2,500-mile six-month hike4kids.com hike through the entire Appalachian and Ozark trails beginning in late February.

A proposal by two WUSTL students to introduce turf reduction, large bio-swales, more cisterns and even sheep “lawnmowers” to campus as part of plan to make landscaping more sustainable at the university won the $5,000 first prize in the annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition.

Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) filing shows real numbers for profit and revenues, which are likely to drive a valuation that could be as high as $100 billion.This astronomical number does require some aggressive assumptions about future growth, but the high valuation may be more justified than for other internet companies, says Mark T. Leary, PhD, assistant professor of finance at Washington University’s Olin Business School.

Can’t get enough Elton John, Weego the dog, Matthew Broderick or babies in slingshots? Plan to relive all your favorite Super Bowl commercials during the annual SuperAd Bowl, sponsored by the Olin Marketing Association, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9 in the Knight Executive Education Center.

American Airlines’ plan to lay off more than 13,000 employees and eliminate all four of its pension plans as part of its bankruptcy reorganization could eventually spell the end of the airline and leave its pilots with dramatically reduced pensions, say two experts at Washington University in St. Louis.