From health care to finance, civic service to cultural engagement and more, Kansas City’s businesses and nonprofits are flourishing with trailblazers who have been able to make their mark, thanks to their Bloch education.

The 2017 Bloch Magazine highlights how a few Bloch grads, who came to UMKC from different walks of life, took advantage of Bloch’s diverse opportunities and have since been putting their skills to the test to make an impact across the Kansas City metro area

Photo Credit: Brandon Parigo, Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications

While looking for business schools in the United States, Chiluba Musonda never imagined Kansas City would become his home away from home.

Musonda grew up in Zambia, located in Southern Africa, and confesses that when he was enrolled in the Bloch School’s Bachelor of Business Administration program, he was simply looking to gain acceptance to any business school in the United States.

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In marketing, there are any number of variables, inputs and stimuli that can impact consumer behavior: advertising, discounts, reward programs, expanded business hours and many more. Which ones drive increases or decreases in sales? Maybe you increased your Google ad buy by 15 percent, but is that really what caused the six percent spike in orders the following month? There’s no real way to tell.

Or is there?

Jeff Johnson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of marketing at Bloch, with expertise in personal selling and sales management, business-to-business marketing and marketing strategy. One of his major research projects involves mining big data to hone in on which customer stimuli really drive changes in customer behavior. Continue reading →

Scott Helm, Ph.D., has been newly appointed the director of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management’s Executive MBA program.

In addition to his roles as director of the Executive Master of Public Administration (E.M.P.A.), associate teaching professor of Public Affairs and associate director of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, Helm will oversee Bloch’s Executive MBA initiatives.

Helm received a B.A. in economics from Washington College, an M.P.A. with a concentration in nonprofit management from the Bloch School and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in public administration and economics from University of Missouri-Kansas City.  In addition to his academic pursuits, Helm has served as a consultant to some of Kansas City’s most impactful organizations in Health, Nonprofit and Business, including the Kauffman Foundation, Samuel U. Rodgers, and most recently the Kansas City Royals (for their Urban Youth Academy).

“We’re excited that Scott will be taking on this leadership role for the EMBA program,” says Bloch School Dean Brian Klaas. “His industry experience, his understanding of how to build and deliver high quality programs for executives, and his talents as an instructor make him the perfect fit to lead this premier program.”

From health care to finance, civic service to cultural engagement and more, Kansas City’s businesses and nonprofits are flourishing with trailblazers who have been able to make their mark, thanks to their Bloch education.

The 2017 Bloch Magazine highlights how a few Bloch grads, who came to UMKC from different walks of life, took advantage of Bloch’s diverse opportunities and have since been putting their skills to the test to make an impact across the Kansas City metro area.

Photo Credit: Brandon Parigo, Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications

Searching for a challenge as a student led Vreni Fernandez on a path where she’s in the driver’s seat of her own success.

Fernandez began at UMKC as a pre-physical therapy major with a minor in business administration. But soon, she found herself changing gears.

“By the end of my freshman year, I found I enjoyed my business and marketing classes more than my anatomy classes,” she says. “So I made the switch to become a full-time business major and shortly afterwards, I joined two organizations – Delta Sigma Pi and Enactus – to help me network within the business community.”

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Photo Credit: Brandon Parigo, Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications

Bloch student dedicated to connecting with international peers

Hieu Phung (B.B.A.) understands the importance of creating connections across cultures. Upon coming to the United States from Vietnam in 2013, Phung made it his mission to connect with other international students like himself, making the Bloch School the perfect place for him.

“Getting to know all of the international students at the Bloch School is really cool,” Phung says. “Forming relationships with peers who have faced similar challenges or obstacles as me is inspiring.”

Holding executive positions in clubs like the International Student Council, Phung is heavily involved with international affairs on campus and believes in the power of cultural diversity on college campuses.

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From health care to finance, civic service to cultural engagement and more, Kansas City’s businesses and nonprofits are flourishing with trailblazers who have been able to make their mark, thanks to their Bloch education.

The 2017 Bloch Magazine highlights how a few Bloch grads, who came to UMKC from different walks of life, took advantage of Bloch’s diverse opportunities and have since been putting their skills to the test to make an impact across the Kansas City metro area.

Jason Carter-Solomon stumbled into his passion, and is now in full stride, using it to make an impact.

Carter-Solomon has been a banker for five years, and focuses specifically on originating commercial loans for real estate developers and investors. Intending to gear his banking career toward commercial development, he built at network at the Bloch School that showed him a new side of the industry.

“I fell into commercial banking unintentionally, which is pretty common,” he says. “While receiving my Masters in Entrepreneurial Real Estate, I met and built relationships with a few commercial bankers, which lead to an opportunity to work as an analyst in an underwriting training program.”

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