University at Buffalo School of Management

4 Buffalo Business Autumn 2016 Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), UB's Office of Sci- ence, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) and UB's new Blackstone LaunchPad. They also participated in the 2014 Elevator Pitch competition at UB's Entrepreneurship Academy and worked at the Buffalo Student Sandbox. They now operate out of the UB Gateway Building as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Start-Up NY tax-free business program. Other new venture ideas included a precious metal retrieval unit used to recover and reuse pricy metals; a medical product company that proposes a superior heal- ing alternative for conventional tissue vessel grafts in vas- cular surgery; a cloud-based application to capture and preserve a family's oral history; and a social network for learning new languages. Now in its 16th year, Panasci TEC was created by the School of Management and STOR and is funded with a $1 million endowment from the late Henry A. Panasci Jr. Hosted by the CEL, the event brings together UB students from science, technology, business and other disciplines to maximize their potential and create viable businesses in Western New York. x Costello receives Chancellor's Award David Costello, MBA '84, has been awarded the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service. As director of information technology and assistant dean in the School of Management, Costello is responsible for classroom support, project management for all major technology-based projects for the school, and facilities management for both of the school's build- ings. He joined the school in 1997 and, with a staff of five, supports and maintains the school's infrastructure of more than 450 computers, 13 technology-equipped classrooms and a 30-workstation student computer lab with nine student lab consultants. Directly responsible for multiple databases that support critical school operations, Costello oversees all applications contributing to the functionality of the school's website and its business processes for faculty and staff. More broadly, he formulates IT strategy for the school and leads its efforts in evaluating new tech- nologies and network security protocols. Costello is co- chair of the school's digital communications committee and serves as a liaison to UB's CIO and IT directors. He also led the school's largest facilities expansion project in the last decade: the new Undergraduate Learning and Community Center. startups "The outstanding quality of Dave's work, his com- mitment to excellence, his dedication to service and, most important, the expansive impact of his leadership on the school, the university and beyond make him a most worthy candidate for the Chancellor's Award," said Dean Paul Tesluk. x New MBA concentration in data analytics According to computer giant IBM, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, and 90 percent of the world's data has been created in the last two years. With so much information coming from every- where, businesses demand employees who can peer into massive databases and profit from what they find. "After communications skills, this is the number one request of our students from employers — analytical ability," said Erin O'Brien, assistant dean and director of graduate programs. This demand has driven the School of Management to create a concentration in data analytics for full-time MBAs. The concentration will serve as a companion to traditional concentrations and begin in the second semester of the MBA program with a data modeling course taught by Frank Krzystofiak, associate dean of ex- ecutive education and associate professor of organization and human resources. The following summer, students will participate in online learning that gives them a broad introduction to data analytics tools like SAS (Statistical Analysis System) and basic statistical programming languages like R and Python. MBAs will choose from currently available elec- tives in marketing, health care and finance analytics that focus on data management and analysis. In addition, the school has created two new courses as part of the concen- tration: "Marketing Analytics for Data-Driven Decision- Making" and "Health Care Marketing and Analytics." "We're giving our students the skills they need to use big data to make business decisions and tell a story that adds value for their future employers," said O'Brien. x Costello

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