We quickly organized into specialized teams and began dedicating our time to developing the theme, finding the speakers, and coordinating details of what would be the SPRNG Conference. If you can imagine a room full of highly driven and diverse individuals, then you can envision what Net Impact meetings resembled during this hectic time of collaboration. This was a period when my teammates and I were able to each shine in our own distinct way, and every member ended up contributing a piece of their individual ability and style to organizing the event. Together we overcame and laughed through blunders big and small while working toward a unified vision of quality.

Most of us didn’t cease working until that first bite of appetizers in the atrium of the UO White Stag building at 4:30 p.m. on May 2. The room was bustling with like-minded professionals and university students, all present because of a joint passion for sustainable business. Knowing that we were responsible for the enablement of this connection was just the first reward of the evening.

The conference was buzzing with the sustainability bug from the introductory reception to the final words of keynote Mark Edlen. Edlen had been rousing interest for the past few years as the CEO of the development company Gerding Edlen, responsible for more than 60 green projects in the western United States. And Edlen wasn’t the only invited speaker with an inspiring pedigree. Dave Frohnmayer, former UO president and versed in the kind of rhetoric that was able to impassion the room for the next few hours, initiated the conference podium with tales of Oregon’s sustainable past. A fellow Net Impact member, Alex Ayers, later mentioned that it was Frohnmayer’s reminder that our drive toward sustainability stems from Oregon’s distinct culture of caring for our lush surroundings. Our love for our environment produces caring individuals, and Ayers said that it is exactly this warmth and compassion that initially attracted him to Net Impact. Both Frohnmayer and Ayers rightly pointed out that this kindness and heart was a common thread amongst the SPRNG Conference attendees.

Marsha Willard, CEO of AXIS, carried the momentum with a presentation packed full of sustainability facts that I personally will be chewing on for a while. For example, I had no idea that only 6 percent of extracted raw resources get put into the final consumer product, with an astonishing 94 percent going to waste. Her expertise in consultation and sustainability education geared the audience toward the primary theme of the conference–”The Future of Sustainable Business.”

A panel made up of Andy Giegerich, Bill Campbell, Joe Whitworth, Regina Hauser, and Tim Smith–and led by moderator Sally Bell–examined past, present, and future trends in sustainable business. Speakers represented varying sectors from finance to media and highlighted the value of collaboration and out-of-the-box innovation for the success of the kind of businesses that place emphasis on societal gains over marginal growth. The clear passion of each panelist effortlessly translated to the room through a panel discussion that produced a compilation of quotable dialogue urging the audience to take part in using the power of business to create social change and lessen environmental footprints. Panelist Joe Whitworth, president of Freshwater Trust, reminded us that “while we cannot individually solve the problems of the world, we all hold a piece that is invaluable to the solution.” A colleague and I had a moment of mutual recognition for this power of teamwork as we stood together at the conference doors, looking into a room full of motivated and green-minded people facing our “SPRNG” logo.

Being a part of Net Impact, a group full of individuals striving for change, has affirmed what I’d like to dedicate my life’s work to. Our conference gave me yet another boost of hope and focus to stay dedicated to working for sustainability as I graduate from the University of Oregon this June. We managed to bring together true role models of sustainable business, and to me, they were verification that advancements toward a better world are possible through determination and a genuine love for every living thing in our communities. Each panelist pointed out that while work within the green arena is at times an uphill climb and a journey against the accepted grain, the work is always gratifying and worth the struggle. To a room full of college seniors, these words meant everything.

Olya Surits ’13

• Center for Sustainable Business Practices: After a fantastic trip to the Bay Area to learn about sustainability at a variety of startups (including Facebook), CSBP students finished off the month of April with a series of great events and guest speakers during Earth Week. In the classroom, courses such as Impact Investing and Advanced Strategy (with Professor of Practice, Michael Crooke) have continued the dialogue about responsible business and continue to prepare students for the ever-evolving landscape of impact business.
• Finance and Securities Analysis: FSAC also enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Bay Area, and reaped the benefits of some really impactful meetings with Wells Fargo and Equilibrium Capital. A recent update of the Emerging Markets Fund has shown growth in the portfolio since last quarter, and the group continues to identify new investment opportunities as second-year students mentor first-years in the EMF process.
• Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship: Spring has been especially hectic for LCE students, as they have volunteered at the perennially successful New Venture Championship, visited San Francisco with their CSBP and FSAC classmates, and competed in a variety of venture-launch competitions. Of particular note is the (well documented) success of Red Duck Ketchup, who have entered production and launched a KickStarter campaign to help raise capital for future operations.
• Warsaw Sports Marketing Center: The Warsaw Center celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and once again hosted an incredibly successful Women in Sports Business Symposium that focused on branding athletes in the digital age. First year students visited San Francisco during the first week of the term, and as we speak, the second year students are working to finalize their two-term Strategic Planning Projects for their clients.

Check back soon to see what else is going on within the program!

The evening continued to the dining room where our first course and main course were served over more intimate conversations between the students and our business guests. Topics of conversation ranged from football allegiances to work-life balance and entrepreneurial advice, to name a few. We students were then offered the opportunity to introduce the guests at the table to the entire group, giving everyone a chance to see the great talent, success, and achievements made by those in our company.

As we made our way upstairs for drinks and dessert, Mark Greenough prepared a networking activity to offer additional time for small groups to ask questions and glean as much as we could from our guests before the evening drew to a close. In small groups, we spoke with 2-3 guests about their great achievements, biggest challenges, and highest aspirations. The intimate setting provided for a honest discussion of the highs and lows of business, focusing on how the journey is the exciting part, not the destination.

To say the least, the evening was motivational as we had the honor to hear about real world business success from the mouths of those who achieved it. The variety of personalities and careers afforded us a myriad of examples of what success really looked like and how it could be achieved. As young men and women at the beginning of our career adventures, this dinner provided us a unique look at the paths taken of those who were once in our shoes. The Oregon MBA is grateful for the following guests, especially Mark and Martha for offering us their time, energy, and wisdom:

• Mark Greenough (Greenough Consulting Group)
• Martha Greenough (Independent Bookkeeper)
• Joshua Greenough (Capital One Innovation Center)
• Brian Connolly (Connolly Advisors)
• Ben Keighran (Chomp)
• Lauryn Agnew (Seal Cove Financial)
• Geoff Dolan (Makani Power)
• Claire Herminjard (Mindful Meats)
• Robert Simon (IDC Ventures)
• Ken Pearlman (Oceanshore Ventures)
• Eli Janin (Capital One Innovation Center)
• Bob Komin (TicketFly)

Last Thursday, the Warsaw Center hosted the 17^th Annual Women in Sports Business Symposium (WSBS).  The purpose of the annual conference is to provide a forum for students and practitioners to connect and discuss current industry topics and trends.  The emphasis of this year’s event  was branding of athletes in a digital age.  WSBS attendees had the opportunity this year to interact with  noteworthy experts in the sports industry including:

• David Higdon, Managing Director of Integrated Marketing Communications for NASCAR,
• Rachel Epstein, Director of Business Strategy and Operations for espnW,
• Lauren Fleshman, Professional Track Athlete and Co-Founder/Brand Director of Picky Bars,
• Lauren Westendorf, Manager of Women’s College Basketball for Nike Sports Marketing, and Emily Lamunyan, Director of Marketing for the Portland Timbers.

The event also came during a time of celebration for the Warsaw Center itself, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The Warsaw Sports Marketing Center was founded in 1993 by James H. Warsaw, a pioneer in the sports industry who led a company that was the NFL’s first licensee. Jim Warsaw’s integrity and authenticity in his interactions with students, alumni, and sports industry leaders were well renowned, and the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center carries forth that legacy with a close-knit community in which mutual respect, honesty, and fairness are paramount.

Co-chairs of this year’s symposium, Jessica Zutz and Jenny Swaim (both WSMC Class of 2013) remarked that the event was a “tremendous success, and a really enjoyable event with great networking opportunities”. For additional information and updates, check out the WSBS Facebook page!

Next, we were off to visit 500 Startups, which is a business incubator/accelerator (with heavy focus on mobile applications) located in Mountain View. The laid back environment was completely open, and focused totally on allowing new ideas to flourish and develop into potential businesses. Everything seemed acceptable here, as evidenced by the sign on the front door that read “Warning: Ninjas and Pirates and Lasers and S[tuff]“. Unfortunately our time here was a bit limited by our schedule, so we asked a lot about the current tenants and the funding structure (the incubator provides seed funding and guidance, and maintains relationships with larger organizations in the area) before heading to our much anticipated meeting with Facebook.

Looking at the campus from afar, you’d barely be able to distinguish Facebook from a series apartment buildings, until you spotted the gigantic “Like” button right outside the driveway entry. At Facebook we met with Lyrica McTiernan. Lyrica is a Sustainability Program Manager at Facebook, which means that a great deal of her time is spent analyzing the performance and developing programs for the company’s data centers. Because of their massive energy demand, data centers make up very large portion of Facebook’s environmental impact, and have dedicated team that works tirelessly to balance maximum reliability and minimal energy usage. While the discussion of energy efficiency and green building practices was interesting, I think it’s safe to say that most of us were a bit preoccupied trying to get our names on the signature wall (Shaq’s autograph is obviously at the very top) and take in the beauty and eccentricity of our surroundings (complete with a mural of Yoda!).

After “checking in” at the Facebook HQ, we moved north again on US101 to visit Pinnacle Engines. This was another short visit, but allowed us the opportunity to observe an engine durability test in progress, and learn about a potentially massive upgrade in fuel efficiency for internal combustion engines. Using Pinnacle’s patented and innovative engine design, small vehicles (mopeds, motorcycles, cars) can experience over 50% more efficient use of fuel. Pinnacle’s VP of Marketing and Special Projects, Tom Covington, explained the importance of selecting the right markets for initial adoption, and outlined the company’s plans to build a strong customer base in emerging markets such as India and China, where sensitivity to fuel prices and an abundance of smaller vehicles combine to create favorable market conditions.

The last visit of our trip was at Stanford Hospital with the Executive Director of Emergency and Medicine Services, Janet Rimicci, and a panel of Stanford Hospital executives. Our discussion here was centered on the important role that logistics can play in a hospital that continually needs to move patients in and out of various services, as well as sustainability at a facility that requires redundant systems and constant access to electricity to support its systems. Overall it was a great visit that provided a nice finale to our busy trip to the Bay Area!

The Finance and Securities Analysis Center’s trip to San Francisco began with a visit to one of the most influential banks in the country, Wells Fargo.  There, Erik Bidenkap and Mike Niedermeyer, a University of Oregon alumnus, were kind enough to host our group for an informative discussion which touched on a variety of banking topics.  Mr. Niedermeyer began with a brief overview of the company and detailed the different segments that the firm is comprised of.  He also explained how they have grown since their acquisition of Wachovia, which doubled the size of Wells Fargo.

Perhaps even more interesting to a group of debt-stricken students was Mr. Bidenkap’s synopsis of internships and careers at Wells Fargo.  Wells Fargo is an active recruiter of business students at the University of Oregon and has programs set up to train and develop employees so they can reach their maximum career potential. The list of prominent UO alumni also includes Mark Myers who leads over 1,000 employees in the bank’s real estate lending services group.

Mr. Niedermeyer then opened the floor up for students to ask any questions they had pertaining to investments and banking.  With a diverse composition of industry backgrounds, the questions ranged from information on energy markets to impact investing and real estate finance.  We also got an informative update on how Wells Fargo has adapted to a post-recession era, and light was shed on some common misassumptions related to lending in this new environment. A big thank you goes out to both Mike Niedermeyer and Erik Bidenkap, who proved to be excellent hosts for our program and started our journey through the Bay with a positive attitude!

Despite arriving back to the hotel late the previous night, we were up and at ‘em bright and early on Thursday morning as we headed off to the Visa International headquarters in San Mateo. We were welcomed by University of Oregon alumnus Kara Linse, Manager of FIFA Global Sponsorship Marketing at Visa. After receiving our name tags, we headed up to a large conference room to meet some of her colleagues.

Marketing manager Aaron Hoffman led things off with a presentation on Visa’s “Make it Epic” NFL marketing campaign. He explained the campaign’s focus on social media, offering fans opportunities to participate in contests that allowed the winners to take part in unique events, such as sitting in on a 49ers pre-game speech or interviewing Baltimore Ravens’ star Ray Lewis, to engage the league’s consumers.

Hoffman was followed up by Zaileen Janmohamed, a business leader in Special Projects and Global Sponsorship Management. She discussed Visa’s Olympic Athlete Program, which she oversees, emphasizing the ways in which the company develops its athlete strategy and carries out recruitment, and then integrates its athletes into Visa’s Olympic activation and marketing campaigns.

Kara then took over to tell us about Visa’s global sponsorships with FIFA and SUM (Soccer United Marketing) and how Visa plans to increase their activations to more countries. For the 2014 World Cup, Visa enjoys exclusive payment rights, and they are taking the essence of Brazil to other markets through commercials and promotions.

To wrap things up, we had the pleasure of sitting in on a panel comprised of Jamie Hamann, Coley Holnback, and Barrie Howard, all of whom were on the ground in London for last summer’s Olympics. They told us about their experiences in various aspects of sponsorship activation, operations logistics, and customer service, which provided us with insight about what goes on at one of the largest sports events in the world.

After driving back up to San Francisco and grabbing lunch on our own, we met up at the offices of Fleishman-Hillard, one of the most successful Public Relations and Communications firms in the world. We were welcomed by Abbey Breshears, a senior account executive, and joined by Mitch Germann, the Senior Vice-President of the agency, and Matt Faust, an account supervisor.

They proceeded to give us a phenomenal presentation based around on-site activation case studies, describing how they used science as proof of the product’s benefits for Gatorade at the Super Bowl, activated Visa’s NFL sponsorship through fan offers, and used a fan cover vote to partner EA Sports with ESPN for the new Madden video game to sustain conversation of the product year-round, among others. We finished up our visit with a round of Q&A, and were left with a final nugget from the trio, as they all highlighted that the main challenge for a brand in using social media is to maintain the same brand voice throughout the process, and that keeping that single voice is crucial to the success of marketing a brand.

Our new friends from Fleishman-Hillard then acted as gracious hosts by treating us to a networking hour where we were able to relax and further pick the brains of the PR agency’s executives, a great way to wrap up our third day!

“Often with the fast-paced nature of college, work, and friends, I find it difficult to take a step back and realize how blessed I truly am. Traveling to Costa Rica and building a basketball court within the El Higueron community provided me with this realization. I can genuinely say I have never been physically pushed to my limits like I was while mixing and pouring concrete. But the satisfaction I felt once our team completed the court, and the joy it brought to the community, made it all worth it. Remembering the smiles of the children and adults, laughing and playing with their peers on the court–it is something I will never forget. Many people believed we served the community, which in many ways we did. However, I would say that the community served us far more than we served them. Life moves a little bit slower there, which enables the community to appreciate each other and the smaller aspects of life a little bit more. This is something I often forget to do, and this trip reminded me of the importance of everyday wins. Our trip to El Higueron would not have been possible without the support of the Quest Foundation, Consolidated Supply Co, Delap LLP, and Mr. and Mrs. Harsvik. On behalf of the entire team, I would like to thank you for your donations.”

Klout was second on our agenda, and provided us with a fantastic visit that helped us understand what it’s like to be part of the San Francisco startup scene.  Students enjoyed learning about Klout’s mission of “empowering every person by unlocking their influence.”  During our visit, we also learned about the company’s formation, and its goals for the near future.  Students also learned about the importance of social media in today’s society and the influence each Facebook and Twitter user can generate through sharing content. The reward-based gamification of social media via Klout was also very interesting, as it provides incentive for individuals to target their online interactions in order to achieve personal gain.

The next startup on our schedule was Dropcam. At Dropcam, we observed a great example of “recognizing business opportunities”, as the co-founders explained how they sort of fell into their company by initially trying to help out their parents. They then went on to explain the challenges of ensuring that their product could add value for their customers, and the difficulties they faced as they tried to segment markets, and straddle the line between producing hardware and providing software for their customers.

After Dropcam, we visited Equilibirum Capital, a visit that has been highlighted in detail here. Then we were off to the Capital One Innovation Center for an interactive group exercise with Josh Greenough, another UO alum. Josh focused a great deal on the innovation that is taking place nowadays with the increasing prevalence of mobile technology and transactions. He also discussed the role his team plays at Capital One, which is intriguing because they serve as an incubator inside of a much larger banking entity– two groups with very different levels of risk tolerance.

Although our first day was not finished yet (still on the docket was a wonderful dinner at the Century Club), our official business visits were complete. And in spite of the hectic scheduling, I think that everyone felt stimulated by the fast pace and excitement of San Francisco and its rapidly evolving tech environment, and hungry for more (and also that dinner at the Century Club!).

Dave’s firm, Equilibrium Capital Group owns a platform of real asset managers focused on the areas of water, distributed and renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and integrated land management green real estate.  It’s a mouthful but the concept was born from Dave boldly saying YES to the question, “Could finance be a solution for global issues such as famine, abuse of resources, and global warming?”  Dave sets out solving these problems by channeling funds into real assets that are managed using sustainable practices, which results in growing value and consistent returns. After all, Dave says “Investing, no matter what word you put in front of it is still investing, even impact investing. Everybody in investing wants to get paid.” Often times sustainability gets criticized for being a fluffy concept that is difficult to define.  But according to Dave there is nothing fluffy about sustainability.  Through his experience he can see that it is an economic shift.  With 4 billion humans entering the middle class “wanting to eat chicken and drive cars”, our methods for farming, development, and energy generation are going to have to change to be able to support the stresses put on the system.  Sustainability is essential for our global economy moving forward.

Where do MBAs fit into all of this? Dave shared some knowledge and skills we must possess if we want to be in impact investing.

1. Know your way around a spreadsheet (be able to trace benefits flows- dissecting benefits flows can lead to financial innovation)
2. Risk management and assessment
3. Valuing of externalities
4. Willingness to roll up your sleeves and figure stuff out

Visiting firms like Equilibrium Capital gives students like us a first hand account of the skills desired by our future employers and adds significant value to the education we are receiving at the Oregon MBA.