They compete for students, dollars and ratings, but the rivalry among SoCal biz deans is a friendly one. In fact, the suggestion that there’s an “MBA mafia” gets grins and nods from Judy Olian, Andy Policano and Art Kraft,the new (or relatively new) deans of the UCLA (Anderson), UCI (Merage) and Chapman U (Argyros) biz schools, respectively. They became friends while serving as deans east of the Rockies and holding leadership positions in their top professional group, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Olian, who hosted a meet-and-greet at the Westin South Coast Plaza last week, noted that Yash Gupta, who just quit the USC deanship, also is part of the AACSB inner circle …
There’s a middle America thing going on, too: Before coming to SoCal, Policano headed the B-school at Wisconsin, Kraft at DePaul and Olian at Penn State …
One of Kraft’s objectives is to get Chapman onto one of the “top 100” B-school lists; he thinks the part-time MBA program has the best shot. Kraft says a big difference between Chicago and OC (besides weather) is the car,he logged fewer than 1,000 miles a year there; here, he did it in a month …
As Gupta’s resignation once again shows, biz deans come and go quickly around here. The exception,Anil Puri, Cal State Fullerton’s biz dean for eight years. Puri isn’t an AACSB bigwig. But he, too, has mid-America credentials,advanced degrees from Minnesota …
Heart-stopping and heart-breaking silver medalist Sasha Cohen was golden last week for her hometown of Corona del Mar, which got frequent mentions on Olympics telecasts. The Insider thinks she also would make a stellar pitchwoman for OC legal-services startup Strategic Legal Systems, founded and chaired by her dad, Roger Cohen …
“Hitchcock Blonde,” running through March 12 at South Coast Rep, is a path-breaker,not for the nudity (ho-hum) but for the state-of-the-art multimedia. And Dakin Matthews nails Hitchcock, right down to the scowling lower lip … State Senate hopefuls Tom Harman and Diane Harkey have agreed to what may be their only debate, on “Inside OC,” airing April 2 and 5 …
More good news for former Irvine Company exec-turned-author Franz Wisner. The paperback version of “Honeymoon with My Brother” opened at No. 21 on the New York Times bestseller list …
Snoop Dogg not only entertained at the always-lavish, always rockin’ Roth Capital Partners conference at the St. Regis, his lyrics provided investment advice: “Keep your mind on your money and your money on your mind” …
Coastline Community College is taking suggestions for a school mascot. The finalists will be put to an online vote starting March 5. Redskins, Irish or Bikini Babes need not apply,no “offending” names will be allowed, says spokeswoman Michelle Sutliff. So far, top suggestions include a seagull and a dolphin. Now all the school needs is a sports team.
