Program Update from Professor Steve Malpezzi

by Stephen Malpezzi, Professor and Lorin and Marjorie Tiefenthaler Distinguished Chair in Real Estate

Students are filtering back, and we’re gearing up for another rocking academic year.  The streets are filled with students and their friends and parents, and vans and trailers full of the necessities of another year in Madison.

Do you miss the reading lists and syllabi you used to receive each September?  Well, you can get a head start at your lifelong-learning ‘semester’ by reading through the little list here at our blog where I posted the latest Top 12 “Reading for Life” entries.  (Comments welcome!)  But I’m writing today mainly to bring you some news. 

Last year, after several turns as Department Chair, and two years as Academic Director of the Graaskamp Center, I turned the Center directorship into the more-than-capable hands of Morris Davis.  I was planning to spend more time on teaching and research.  But (great!) events intervened, and I stepped in as Department Chair once again last fall, when François Ortalo-Magné became our new Dean. 

I’m very excited about the directions François is taking our School.  School-wide initiatives that he’s spearheading focus on increasing the impact of our research on business and public policy; providing a transformational student experience through innovations in the way we teach; and providing faculty, staff, students and all of us with a “Great Platform for Great Work.”  During the coming year you will learn more about these initiatives both through our blog but also the WSB’s website.

Today I’m writing to tell you more about another positive change.  Recently Dean Ortalo-Magné made it official:  my colleagues and I are very pleased that Professor Abdullah Yavas has accepted the chairmanship of the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics.

Professor Yavas is well known among real estate academics as one of the most innovative and productive researchers in our field; several years ago we were very excited to lure him to Madison from Penn State, where he was a stalwart member of their fine faculty for 17 years.   As many readers of this blog already know, Abdullah is also a faculty member of deep experience across a number of other dimensions, including administration; he’s one of only two real estate academics I know who’s served as president of a university!
I know readers of this blog will join François and me, and the rest of our faculty, in congratulating Abdullah, and thanking him for taking on this important responsibility.  Check out Abdullah’s bio, if you have not already done so.

I must make a personal clarification as well.  The LAST time I stepped down as Department Chair (!), I received a number of messages wishing me well in retirement.  Retirement?  Let me be very clear, I am NOT retiring.

I will be doing whatever I can, as so many others will, to support our School and in particular our Real Estate Program’s management team of Abdullah and Center Academic Director Morris Davis, and of course our Graaskamp Center Executive Director Mike Brennan, in the coming year and beyond.  I’ll be expanding my teaching responsibilities, helping the School with the new Business Analytics initiative (including but not limited to improving our students’ Excel skills), and working to focus the efforts of Real Estate and other parts of the School and UW on some important economic development issues.   Forthcoming blog posts will fill you in on some new Graaskamp Center initiatives on economic development, with an initial focus on the Midwest.

This year, in addition to teaching urban economics, I’m excited to be teaming up with Mike Hershberger to teach valuation, and with Erwan Quintin to revive our housing economics class (last taught in 2002!)  As we bring these courses online this fall, we’ll be looking to make good use of the resources François and donors including real estate alum Milo Pinkerton are bringing to the teaching innovation initiatives that François mentions in the attachment.

We have plenty of other news to share, notably the fact that our newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Jaime Luque, is now on campus and preparing his first courses, in urban economics and real estate finance.  You’ve probably already read about Jaime. In the ensuing months, you’ll be hearing much more from Abdullah and Morris, and Mike, and our other faculty and staff, about the state of our Program and our industry.  At the School level, you’ll hear from François and his management team.  Rest assured that you’ll continue to hear from me, too.  After nine years of administrative responsibilities I’m looking forward to a little more time for teaching and research, but I will continue to be actively involved in all aspects of the Graaskamp Center and our real estate Program.  Especially writing more postings for Wisconsin Real Estate Viewpoint!

School of Business dean finalists to visit campus

From the office of University Communications:

The three finalists for the position of Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be on campus in coming days.

Each finalist will spend two days on campus visiting and meeting with people at UW-Madison as the final part of the search-and-screen process.

During their visits, the three finalists will have contact with the broader campus community, from meetings with Chancellor Biddy Martin and Provost Paul DeLuca to gatherings with academic deans, shared governance groups, and students, faculty, staff, alumni and other members of the Wisconsin School of Business community.

The candidates will also hold open sessions in Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave., to answer questions from those interested in the future of the Wisconsin School of Business.

• Monday, June 6: Michael Trick, professor of operations research and associate dean for research in the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, 10:30 a.m.
• Wednesday, June 8: Anil K. Makhija, Dean's Distinguished Professor of Finance in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, 2:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, June 15: François Ortalo-Magné, Robert E. Wangard Professor of Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business, 10:30 a.m.

Live webcasts of the candidate presentations will be available at http://www.bus.wisc.edu.

This morning was the first of the presentations, with Michael Trick. As part of his presentation, he mentioned two books on the future of graduate level business education. I thought this was a good fit for our Reading for Life series (originated by Prof. Stephen Malpezzi, see previous entries in the series here).

The first is Rethinking the MBA by three Harvard researchers Srikant Datar, David A. Garvin, and Patrick G. Cullen; and the other is From Higher Aims to Hired Hands by Harvard professor Rakesh Khurana.

There certainly is no shortage of books on the subject of higher education. Have you read either of these books? What do you think of them? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Best Financial Advisers for Doctors in U.S.: Michael A. Dubis Financial Planning

Congratulations to Michael Dubis who was named as one of the best financial advisers for doctors in the U.S. by Medical Economics in November 2010. The list recognizes the nation’s top financial advisors who have experience working with doctors and those in the life sciences, and the issues particular to them.

Dubis is a Certified Financial Planner and President of Michael A. Dubis Financial Planning LLC, a fee-only financial planning & investment management firm. He is also a lecturer for the Wisconsin Real Estate Program, teaching Real Estate Equity Investment and a Contemporary Real Estate Topics course to real estate MBAs. A nationally-recognized expert in financial planning, he is frequently quoted in media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and SmartMoney Magazine, and is the author of a regular column for Madison’s InBusiness Magazine’s blog site entitled “Financial Perspectives with Michael Dubis.”

"I am very grateful for the magazine’s consideration," said Dubis. "I feel it serves as a good example of the strong commitment to excellence I strive for when serving all clients."

Congratulations to you, Mike! The Graaskamp Center and students are proud of your achievement and are grateful for your contributions to Wisconsin Real Estate!