Sunday, August 1, 2021

5:00 p.m.  Reception & Heavy Hors d'oeuvres- Merage School Porter Room

6:00 p.m.  Welcome

• Jon Kaplan, Assistant Dean, MBA & Specialty Masters Programs, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine

6:15 p.m.  Keynote Conversation: Leadership in a Digitally Driven World

• Gerardo Okhuysen, Senior Associate Dean, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
• Brad Vierig, Associate Dean, University of Utah

Monday, August 2, 2021

8:00 a.m. Transportation from Hyatt Regency, Newport Beach to the Merage School

8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.  Continental Breakfast - Merage School Courtyard *Full Breakfast Available at the Hotel (Non-hosted)

9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.  Equity, Diversity and Inclusion:

What changes are schools making to increase the diversity of their EMBA cohort and addressing EDI in the student experience? (Inclusive course materials, create an inclusive program community, etc.)

• Tonya Bradford - Associate Professor, UC Irvine

10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.  Morning Refreshment Break

10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.  The Next Generation of EMBA Marketing, Recruiting and Admissions

This session takes a look at the post-pandemic implications for how EMBA programs market and position themselves. We will also discuss what best practices “stay,” in the wake of COVID-19. As more universities and EMBA programs go “test optional” and the implications for diversity, the future of standardized testing in holistic admission is not certain. A lively discussion period is planned!

• Randell Hernandez - Director of Admissions, Executive MBA, University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business
• Barbara Craft - Director of Admissions, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

12:00 p.m.-12:20 p.m.  Welcome by Dean Williamson

12:20 p.m.-1:00 p.m.  Lunch - Merage School Courtyard

1:30 p.m.  Transportation to UCI Applied Innovation at The Cove (5270 California Ave #100, Irvine, CA, 92617)

• Meet the bus in the upper parking lot
• Or walk via Ring Road (1.4 miles). Click here for walking map.

Afternoon at The Cove

2:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.  Introduction of The Cove

• Matt Hanson - Director, New Ventures at UCI Beall Applied Innovation

2:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m.  Break

2:45 p.m.-3:45 p.m.  Charting a Course Forward: Creative Solutions for International Residentials

A renewed look towards EMBA study trips, including trends and a collaborative approach to designing and running safe and effective programs.

• Nikkole Liesse, MBA - Executive Director, Lee Business School Office of Online & Executive Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Alexander Tapp - University Partner, Austral Education Group

3:45 p.m.  Refreshment Break

4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.  Western Region Member Program update

Open Forum modeled after our regional meetings at the annual conference. It is always so interesting to hear from each other the admissions updates, best practices and new programming as it relates to what is happening in our schools.

5:15 p.m.  Leave for Dinner - Pacific Edge Hotel, Laguna Beach

6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Wine Reception and Bungalow Networking hosted by BusinessCAS. Lobster Bake dinner at Pacific Edge Hotel.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

8:00 a.m. Transportation from Hyatt Regency, Newport Beach to the Merage School

8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast - Merage School Courtyard *Full Breakfast Available at the Hotel (Non-hosted)

9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Working Professional Education: The EMBA Lens

There is no perfect future view of working professional education. However, by looking through a lens which incorporates historic trends, the current state, and insights from the market, we can chart an informed path forward.

• Michael Desiderio, Executive Director, EMBAC Council

10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Morning Refreshment Break

10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. The Changing Face of EMBA Services: Executive Career Support

• Sue Ann Gonis – Executive Coach, Team Coach & Career Consultant, University of Michigan
• Klara Farkas – Executive Coach, EMBA Career Services, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
• Cynthia Rude – Executive Director, Merage School Career Services, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
• Panel Moderator, Stephen Taylor – BusinessCAS, Research Director

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.  Open Forum with UC Leaders on All Things EMBA

Join us for an open forum where we will take a deeper dive into the topics dominating conversations during the conference. Tap into the experience of these three seasoned (yet still young) professionals, who combined have been working in the Graduate Management Education space for over 60 years.

• Jon Kaplan – Assistant Dean, MBA & Specialty Masters Programs, The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
• Marjorie DeGraca – Executive Director, Admissions & Marketing, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
• Gonzalo Freixes – Associate Dean, UCLA Anderson School of Business

12:30 p.m.  Conference ends – Box lunches (by reservation only)

About the CAS™

The first and only Centralized Application Service (CAS™) for business programs, BusinessCAS™ brings graduate management admissions offices an improved way to recruit, enroll and admit best-fit students while saving money and better allocating staff resources each admissions cycle. Liaison offers the global platform for driving applicant volume while providing an optimized applicant experience at no cost to participating programs, allowing you to focus on building better business classes.

BusinessCAS offers a single application portal, which benefits applicants by:

• Streamlining the process for researching and applying to multiple programs of interest.
• Offering a modern application experience that guides them through the application process.
• Providing 24/7 access to real-time application status updates.

BusinessCAS adds your school and programs to a global graduate management education marketplace, benefiting your admissions office by:

• Driving awareness of all of your business programs through a streamlined application process and communication tools that enable targeted, personalized communications to those interested in your program.
• Decreasing time to decision by providing a processing team to scan transcripts and package application components as an extension of your staff.
• Providing insight into enrollment trends and performance on your campus through robust analytics and reporting tools.

BusinessCAS benefits the graduate management education discipline as a whole by:

• Collecting and delivering consistent, actionable data about global, discipline-wide enrollment and recruitment trends.
• Facilitating enrollment projections to help guide creation of data-driven recruitment strategies.
• Creating an opportunity to share best practices for building a better class, and ultimately a better workforce.

Robert Ruiz
Vice President, Strategic Enrollment

Robert, Liaison’s vice president of strategic enrollment, joined the company in 2014 with 25 years of experience in the field of admission and enrollment management. He specializes in diversity-based admissions, emerging technologies, operational efficiencies and process management. Robert has held senior admission roles at Tulane University and Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and served as vice president of application services for the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. Most recently, he worked for 10 years as the director of admission at the University of Michigan Medical School. Robert has an M.A. in Higher Education Administration and a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Michigan.

Stephen Taylor
Research Director

Steve joined the BusinessCAS team as Research Director in 2020 after 15 years in higher education administration. Serving in leadership roles for business schools at universities like Harvard and Arizona State, Steve’s experience has focused on enrollment management, process and systems efficiency, and organizational culture. His most recent position was Associate Dean for Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, where he led the unit responsible for all graduate business programs. He holds undergraduate degrees in General Studies and Information Systems, a Master of Business Administration and a post-baccalaureate degree in Philosophy.

Hyatt Regency Newport Beach
1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach, California, 92660
See Maps & Directions

Click here to register for the hotel.

You will need to register for the hotel separately from registering for the event.

The hotel will honor reservations made by July 6, 2021 to get the group rate of $187 + tax + parking. Reservation requests for rooms within the Guest Room Block received after July 6, 2021will be based on availability at Hotel’s prevailing rates.

If you have any reservation related questions, please call (800) 233-1234 and reference Paul Merage hosting Western Regional Conference.

Directions to Hyatt Regency Newport Beach:

• For directions from John Wayne Airport, click here.
• For directions from Los Angeles, click here.
• For directions from San Diego, click here.

Directions to the Merage School: 

• For directions from Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, click here.
• For directions from Los Angeles, click here.
• For directions from San Diego, click here.

Have questions?
Contact us at tadokora@uci.edu