Mustache Season Has Ended

Seen an unusually low number of mustaches recently? That’s because Movember is over. If your memory needs to be jogged, then see Andrew Toby’s blog post from November.

A group of 20+ MBAs were able to collectively raise $2,590 to aid in the research for men’s health issues like prostate cancer. The Wisconsin MBA group competed in a group of 17 business schools from across the world to see who could raise the most money. Wisconsin ended up finishing in the middle of the pack at number nine in the earnings rankings. The London Business School dominated the competition by raising $32,574 (we here at Wisconsin like to think that some of those gains were resultant from a favorable exchange rate). Overall, teams raised a total of $119,176!

Generous donations were made from faculty, classmates, family, friends back home and even a few anonymous donors. The lady that cuts my hair even said she was going to donate, but she failed to come through. I finished with a paltry $30, but I know that every little bit helps, so I can’t let myself be too discouraged for my miserly family and friends back in Texas. The top fundraiser was from our Brand Management center and his contributions grew to $420 (which is more than can be said for how well his mustache grew). For worthy reasons such as interviews, and more ignoble reasons such as personal vanity, some MBAs were not able to stay the course for the full 30 days. The real estate guys started with six mustaches, but sadly ended with only four. Proudly I can say that my fellow-blogger Andrew Toby and I stayed the course.

I proudly wore my mustache back to Texas over the Thanksgiving break. Many laughed in my face, at my face. I thought it appropriate to wax my mustache, à la Rollie Fingers, per it reaching an envious length. However, on the flight back to Texas, I ended up explaining that this was not normally the way I looked to the couple on the plane next to me. I decided that I couldn’t handle the mustache was through the holidays, so I trimmed it down to the standard Tom Selleck-esque. In response to this new look, the TSA officer at the airport on the way back to Madison said, “Tom Selleck mustache…aviator sunglasses…that is not a safe look.” Despite that comment, he let me on the plane. Believe it or not, I’m looking forward to November next year. I think the real estate guys might have to be in charge of the campaign in 2012…that is so long as the Fed can give us a good exchange rate to work with, so that we can beat those guys at London Business School.

Jordan Denzer comes to Madison from Dallas, TX (it is often joked that he is one of the international students). Previously, Jordan managed corporate flexible spending accounts, but decided that he wanted to get into real estate development, which initiated the move to Madison. Currently, Jordan is interested in getting into historic redevelopment and/or mixed-use development projects.