On April 30, the supply chain management program in the Whitman School will host a seminar on "Developing Trends in Supply Chain Management" at SU's Lubin House, located at 11 E. 61st Street in Manhattan. The seminar begins at 12:30 p.m. with a keynote address, "Diagnosing Greatness: Traits of Supply Chain Leaders," given by Charles Poirer, partner at CSC. Breakout sessions will cover issues related to global supply trends, transportation, warehousing, and cross-function collaboration. The afternoon keynote address, "Ideas Wanted: Using Ideas as a Competitive Advantage" will begin at 4:30 p.m. and be given by Grant Goldin, president of Level III Resources. To RSVP, contact Jorgette Marinez. The seminar is co-sponsored by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Companies and organizations are saving millions of dollars by improving their processes through the Six Sigma Methodology. The Whitman School's Six Sigma program has been in existence for three years and has already saved companies more than 6 million dollars. A new online training session will start May 30, with four optional days on the SU campus. The cost for blackbelt training is $4,000; the cost for greenbelt training is $2,000. For more information, contact Pat Penfield, assistant professor of supply chain management and director of supply chain management executive education programs at (315) 443-3428 or pcpenfie@syr.edu.

Whitman students continue to shine. In recent weeks, BSApp took first place for their business concept at the 21st Annual New Ventures World Competition, hosted by the University of Nebraska. SU-SIFE won first place in their league in the SIFE regional competition and now move on to the SIFE National Exposition in Chicago on May 13-15. Six undergraduate Whitman students competed in the annual Deloitte Audit Case Competition and took home the second place award in March. The MBA program recently held its third annual Case Competition, in which five teams competed in the final round. First place went to students enrolled in the Whitman Defense Comptrollership Program. Lastly, the Whitman School recently held the annual Panasci Business Plan Competition, where team Dream Water came in first place, winning $25,000 for their business concept of an all natural water-based sleep aid beverage. Congratualtions to all!

In 2007, the Whitman School restructured its MBA currciulum to offer specialized training in cross-disciplinary skills coupled with real-world experiences to meet the emerging needs of the business world. Furthering that objective, the Whitman School recently appointed Amy McHale as Director of Experiential Learning for the MBA & MS Programs. McHale will lead Whitman’s efforts to provide academically rigorous experiential learning opportunities for MBA students, including developing internship and co-op experiences and other practical outside-the-classroom applications. Most recently employed at Eastman Kodak Company, McHale holds a bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University and an MBA from the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester.