Olin Business School

Hundreds of alumni, students, faculty, business leaders, entrepreneurs and friends of the university gathered May 2 and 3 to celebrate a momentous milestone in the 97-year history of Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School – the dedication of Knight Hall and Bauer Hall, the school’s new state-of-the-art buildings.

Three-time class president Varun Mehrotra says his Commencement speech will celebrate the friendships that will forever connect graduates to each other and to Washington University in St. Louis. He says the university has provided him a range of challenging and thrilling experiences, including the chance to throw out the first pitch at Tuesday’s Cardinals game at Busch Stadium.

In an effort to study causes and find solutions, Washington University in St. Louis faculty from across disciplines are examining economic insecurity through the university’s Livable Lives Initiative. One of the products of this interdisciplinary collaboration is a new book, “Working and Living in the Shadow of Economic Fragility.”

Interdisciplinary student teams presented innovations designed to solve problems in health care at IDEA Labs’ Demo Day last month. Engineering student Matthew Burkhardt (seated) won a summer internship through the university’s Skandalaris Center to continue developing his team’s invention. His teammates are (from left) Yuni Teh, Katrina Leyden, Adina Stoica and Elizabeth Rosenberg.​

More than a dozen distinguished individuals will speak at Commencement-related events later this month for graduates and their friends and families. The weeklong celebration culminates at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 16, with WUSTL’s 153rd Commencement ceremony in Brookings Quadrangle.​​

A group of a two dozen corporate leaders, including Warren Buffet, is trying to influence American companies to increase the number of women in positions of senior leadership. The effort, called the 30% Club, is an expansion of an effort in Great Britain to increase female corporate board representation there to 30 percent by the end of 2015. But can it work in the United States? Maybe, with more defined objectives, says Olin Business School’s Michelle Duguid, PhD, an expert on women in the workplace.

An undergraduate success story: Jolijt Tamanaha spent her last weeks of junior year at Washington University in St. Louis making a deal to sell a startup she co-founded called Farmplicity — an online marketplace that matches restaurants with local farmers — founded in a course through Olin Business School called The Hatchery.

The Brookings Institution and Washington University in St. Louis have announced a new fellowship program aimed at boosting senior-level government employee success. The new Brookings Executive Education Fellowship will help agencies and individuals develop the thinking and behaviors needed for fostering skilled government leadership, while doing so at a significantly reduced cost.

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) has announced the award winners from its 2014 call for proposals.

Olin Business School feted four of its top alumni during the 2014 Olin Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner March 4 at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton. The school presented four Distinguished Alumni Awards, the Dean’s Medal and the Olin Award, which recognizes the important impact scholarly research can have on business results.