Notable Speakers, Events and Program News

A CAREER-DRIVEN MBA

Notre Dame Launches Framework

Each year, the Mendoza College of Business welcomes MBA students to campus with a variety of activities designed to familiarize them with Notre Dame’s cherished traditions, help them get to know each other a bit more and, importantly, start planning for what comes next — their career paths after graduation.

To better support students navigating career decisions, the Notre Dame MBA program revamped its curricular structure for the 2022-2023 academic year to identify pathways that best align a student’s coursework with his or her career aspirations. The four pathways are consulting, finance, marketing and tech.

“This new pathways approach was developed to support our graduates’ career goals while leveraging the strengths of Mendoza’s leading faculty,” said Joe Sweeney, academic director of the MBA programs. “The goal is to create more flexibility to access our academic offerings for the student while helping them to be more intentional with the courses and opportunities they pursue.”

Aligned with each pathway is a designated major(s): Strategy, Finance, Marketing, Digital Marketing and Marketing Analytics, and Business Analytics. However, the framework is not rigid. This flexibility provides every student the ability to earn one of the MBA’s STEM-designated degrees and create an experience that best fits their career needs.

CENTENARY CONFERENCE 

In celebration of Mendoza’s centenary, the College hosted a three-day event to show how they will “Grow the Good in Business” for the next 100 years. The opening plenary discussion posed how to maintain spiritual values in the workplace, while other sessions showed how Mendoza will “grow the good” in finance, management, technology, and business ethics and society.

UNDERGRAD RANKING 

The Mendoza College of Business ranked #5 for best undergraduate business schools by Poets & Quants. The measure incorporates three key components: admissions standards, student experience and career outcomes. 

“I’M HAPPY TO TAKE THE RISK BECAUSE I LOVE WHAT I DO, AND I’M WILLING TO CRASH TO SUCCEED” 

Four-time Olympian Lindsey Vonn speaks during a fireside chat moderated by L. Catterton Global co-CEO Scott Dahnke (ND ’87), on competition, entrepreneurship and being a woman leader as keynote speaker for the 2023 Women’s Investing Summit. 

Hosted by the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing, the fifth annual event featured 22 women in leadership roles as speakers on the theme of “Defining Your Edge,” including a keynote talk by Haley Scott DeMaria (ND ’95). WIS ’23 was supported by sponsorships from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Sixth Street, William Blair, Artisan Partners, BlackRock, Jennison Associates, Norwest Equity Partners and TCW. 

ND WOMEN LEAD 

Kara Palmer, senior director of administration and program management at Mendoza, was featured in the University’s annual Women Lead feature discussing her role in cultivating the College’s inclusive and welcoming culture for International Women’s Day. Read her profile at womenlead2023.nd.edu/kara-palmer/.

INTERNATIONAL IMMERSION

The Notre Dame MBA added new international immersion projects to tackle business challenges globally as part of its interterm program. These week-long projects in spring 2023 provide students with the opportunity to work for organizations in one of four countries: Mexico, Ireland, England and Poland. In total, 82 MBA students worked on 14 projects for 12 organizations, including Five Guys, the Ukrainian Catholic University and several nonprofits.

RECORD-BREAKING OUTCOMES 

The Notre Dame MBA Class of 2022 had a second straight year of record employment outcomes for full-time graduates. This includes 96% of the class receiving and accepting offers within three months of graduation. The average starting base salary rose 9% from 2021 to $133,018, with the mean signing bonus rising 15% to $33,581.

DEAN’S PANEL

In celebration of the College’s 100th anniversary and the newly updated edition of O’Hara’s Heirs: Business Education at Notre Dame, Dean Martijn Cremers hosted former deans Carolyn Woo and Roger Huang. Moderated by co-author Brett Beasley, the deans discussed Mendoza’s history, Catholic character and the College’s future.

THOM BROWNE AT MENDOZA 

Thom Browne is a famous fashion designer known for dressing celebrity superstars including LeBron James, Lizzo, Michelle Obama and many, many others. He’s credited with nothing short of reinventing the grey-striped suit. But perhaps a lesser-known fact about Thom Browne is that he earned his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame — not in design, but in accountancy.

Browne (BBA ’88) discussed his career path and the fashion industry during a fireside chat on April 11 in Mendoza’s Jordan Auditorium. “By Design: Thom Browne on the Business of Fashion” was sponsored by Mendoza and the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS), where he serves as the Institute’s 2022-2023 artist-in-residence.

NEW STEM DESIGNATIONS

The Master of Science in Finance and the Master of Science in Management programs received STEM designations in recognition of their quantitative-based curricula.

TOM MENDOZA TALKS 

Tom Mendoza (ND ’73) received a bobblehead of himself as a gift from the College concluding his fall speaker series.

D&I CASE COMPETITION

For the second year in a row, the Grow the Good in Business Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Case Competition challenged Mendoza students to apply their business acumen to a real-world problem. Forty-five teams of Mendoza graduate and undergraduate students competed for $35,000 in prizes by creating solutions for increasing access to and the quality of financial services in underserved markets. Winners and other competition details are listed on casefordei.mendoza.nd.edu.