Each year, PMVF students acting in the investor role, along with faculty and advisory board input, hold the Spring Showcase at The Hatchery on campus to announce new investments. To date, the fund has made total investment commitments of $170K into seven companies in seven different industries in six cities. In the first round for the 2021-2022 academic year, the investment process began with commitments to CommunityX, Ecotone Renewables, and FundStory. Just this past spring, investments were committed to Arch, Chezie, ConConnect, and Tuyyo.

JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and a Business & Society Institute faculty advisor, guides the PMVF’s academic curriculum with Jill Perry-Smith, senior associate dean, strategic initiatives, and academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, and Juanita Velez, adjunct professor and senior manager diversity, equity, and inclusion operations for Delta Airlines. In addition, Brian Cayce recently joined Goizueta Business School as Managing Director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Cayce brings 17 years of venture capital experience to the team having founded the early-stage impact-focused funds of Gray Ghost Ventures.

Nurturing Future Investors and Entrepreneurs

“Through directed curriculum and classwork, students gain the real-world analysis skills required to make informed investment decisions,” Kurish says. With an industry agnostic approach, “The fund follows a holistic research process during which the students operate in the role of investors. Investors not only learn about the company in front of them, but also about the larger industry and its risks and upside.”  

Student participants come from a wide range of degree programs, including Goizueta’s undergraduate Bachelor of Business Administration program, the school’s multiple MBA programs, and Emory University’s law school. This diversity excites Kurish. “We like the fact that we’ve got students from various academic programs involved. Add to that their unique cultural perspectives and age differences and we all benefit from the interaction.”

A richness and experiential value come to students by what they bring as individuals to each discussion. This sharing develops a collective holistic appreciation for the needs and desires of underrepresented founders.

JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and Business & Society Institute faculty advisor

The PMVF documents investments of entrepreneurial funding ranging from $5-50K through a simple agreement for future equity. Kurish explains, “Most common are seed stage investments of $15-$30K. The goal for these investments is to gain allocation into a financing round led by institutional investors.”

In addition to benefiting each founder and company, this process also provides students unprecedented access and exposure to the world of venture capital–not to mention potential job opportunities.

JB Kurish

To educate and empower founders, the fund offers resources and tools such as Cap table simulator, talent locators, pitch deck examples and basics, and financial modeling for startups. As an educational partner to founders, Goizueta will continue to expand its impact for growth. Kurish notes, “In the future we will incubate their success with even more educational and professional networking opportunities.”  

Changing the Funding Narrative 

Each fall, student class members and leaders are selected for participation in the fund activities. Past student participants continue to support the fund by taking part in evaluative and processing activities in the fall. These fall activities pave the way for the main thrust of student engagement in spring.  

During the 2023 spring class, the fund received over 50 applications. From this applicant pool, managing partners screened over 100 deals and engaged in preliminary due diligence on over 50 of them. To further narrow the pipeline of potential investment, the PMVF team conducted another round of deep due diligence on 10 deals. The investment committee then reviewed the final five deals and ultimately selected four companies to receive PMVF investment. 

JB Kurish

After extensive research, interviews, and analysis by the PMVF team, the following companies received investment commitments through the fund in the 2022-2023 academic year: 

• Chezie, Co-Founder and CEO is Toby Egbuna, COO is Dumebi Egbuna 18BBA 
• ConConnect, Co-Founder and CEO is Andre Peart 
• Tuyyo, Founder & CEO is Stefanie Garcia Turner 21EMBA 
• Arch, CEO & Co-Founder is Gabriel Huertas del Pino and Adam Mutschler 

It is an honor to receive an investment from Emory University’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund. As an alumna of Goizueta Business School, this investment is a full circle moment as I began working on TUYYO while I was receiving my Executive MBA in 2020-2021. This investment will further support TUYYO’s growth in new retail locations across the United States and assist in our efforts to provide clean ingredient, Latin-inspired products to the LatinX community and beyond.

Tuyyo Foods Founder/CEO Stefanie Garcia Turner 21EMBA 

To carry on the rich tradition of investing in and supporting underrepresented founders, the new managing partners of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund have been named. Brandon Best 24MBA, Sumo Desai 24MBA, Savannah Holmes 24MBA, Brandon Jacobs 24BBA, Madeline Ledford 24MBA, Kevin Liu 24EvMBA, and Benedict Owanga 24JD will all lead for the coming year.  

PMVF Wins the AACSB Innovations that Inspire 2023 Award 

AACSB International, a global nonprofit, is the world’s largest business education alliance that connects educators, students, and businesses across the world. Since 1916, the organization has been committed to creating the next generation of leaders. As part of its advocacy outreach in more than 100 countries and territories, AACSB selects 25 Innovative Business Schools of Tomorrow that drive new value for stakeholders.  

Kurish shared, “In the words of AACSB, Goizueta’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund ‘was one of 25 institutions that demonstrate how AACSB member institutions are creating new value for a continuously evolving business world and global society.’”  

Learn more about the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund and access founder applications.  

Follow fund news on Twitter @Peachtree_Fund and LinkedIn @PeachtreeMinorityVentureFund.  

Read more about the prestigious AACSB International award here. 

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“We continue to develop principled and impactful leaders and entrepreneurs, foster innovation for a data and technology driven world, and grow a global presence fueled by local synergies,” said Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean. “I’m proud of our faculty and staff – and energized about the future of our school and students.”

Impacting Business & Beyond

Faculty and staff contribute to the Goizueta and Emory community, but also have significant impact on society and the broader business world. External awards include:

Karen Sedatole, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting, was named as an editor to the Accounting Review. Sedatole was also elected to the position of president elect for the Management Accounting section of the American Accounting Association.

Emma Zhang, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was named an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Zhang was also named an associate editor to the Journal of the American Accounting Association.

Ruomeng Cui, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was a finalist for the 2022 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management for her paper, “Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon.”

Panos Adamopoulos, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named as an associate editor at Management Science.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, was appointed as the senior editor of Organization Science and also received an honorable mention for the Robert K. Merton Award for his paper, “What’s Next? Artists’ Music After Grammy Awards.” Negro additionally served as the principal investigator for the 2022 LGBTQ Southern Survey.

Erika Hall, associate professor of organization & management, was named as an incoming associate editor at the Academy of Management Discoveries.

Dan McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing and Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing were recognized by Poets&Quants’.” McCarthy was also a finalist for the Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was designated as one of the top instructors by Coursera for Management Consulting courses.

Vilma Todri, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named an associate editor to the Management Information Systems Quarterly Journal, one of the top three leading Information Systems journals.

Tonya Smalls, assistant professor in the practice of accounting, has been appointed to serve on the Inaugural Advisory Board for Make-A-Wish Georgia (MAWGA).

Leading the Future Of Emory and Goizueta

Goizueta Business School and Emory also honor academic professionals and leaders for their dedication to excellence through teaching, content development, experiential learning, scholarly inquisition, and commitment.

“We could not be prouder of our exceptional faculty and staff for their remarkable work and dedication throughout the past year,” says Anandhi Bharadwaj, who will step down as vice dean for faculty and research this summer as Professor Wei Jiang prepares to take on the role. “It has been an honor to work alongside our faculty and staff in developing the school and its programs.”

The recipients of these prestigious honors and awards are listed below:

Rajiv Garg, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was awarded the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education. Garg was also honored as the MSBA Distinguished Core Educator.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was awarded Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, received the Keough Faculty Award. Negro also received the Jordan Research Award.

Marvell Nesmith, associate dean of academic affairs & instructional design, received the Keough Staff Award.

Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, was honored as the BBA Distinguished Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (One Year).

Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, professor in the practice of marketing, was awarded the Evening MBA Distinguished Core Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Two Year).

Charles Goetz, associate professor in the Practice of organization & management, was awarded Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator.

Ray Hill, associate professor in the practice of finance, was recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Classic Faculty).

Alvin Lim and David Sackin were awarded MSBA Distinguished Elective Educators.

Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, was awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Core).

Kevin Crowley, associate professor in the practice of finance and Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Dean’s Distinguished Chair of Finance, were awarded MAF Distinguished Educators. Crowley was also awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Elective).

Giacomo Negro, Melissa Williams and Panos Adamopoulos received Goizueta research awards at the levels of full, associate, and assistant professor, respectively.

Goizueta Business School is proud to present the accomplishments of these and other faculty members within our institution. To learn more about the teaching, specialized research, and core interests of each faculty member, check out our faculty profiles and their related publications. 

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It is also no surprise, given the long list of entrepreneurship initiatives fostered by The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, that Goizueta Business School was not only a major sponsor of this year’s third annual Siggie Awards, but also hosted this year’s ceremony, one of two events organized through the center on November 12, 2021. The center also hosted the 13^th semi-annual RAISE (Retention and Advanced Investment for the Southeast at Emory) Forum on November 12. An invitation-only event, the RAISE Forum connects startups seeking funding in the $500,000 to $5 million range with venture capitalists and angel investors from across the Southeast.

Celebrating the Ingenuity of Entrepreneurs at the Annual Siggie Awards

“Over the last few years, as part of Goizueta’s strategy, we have been consistently growing our entrepreneurship and investing initiatives into a complex portfolio to serve the venture aspirations of our community, from students to alumni,” said Robert Kazanjian, senior associate dean for strategic initiatives and academic director of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. “The Siggie Awards complements the building of a network of investors across the entire Southeast, which starts with programs like the RAISE Forum and fits the growing number of startups we’re helping to fund.” 

One of four 2021 Siggie Awards’ winners, Sid Mookerji 04MBA, founder and managing partner of Silicon Road Ventures, took home the Horizon Award, given to a rising early-stage investor. Mookerji called it an “immense honor” adding, “It’s a great time to be in business in Atlanta.”

The Investors’ Choice Award, given to an early-stage investor who embodies the spirit and vision of Mosley as nominated by their peers, went to Ron Love, Founder & CEO at RoLo Capital Group.

Sean O’Brien, Managing Partner, Overline VC, took home the Founders Favorite Award, given to an early-stage investor who is deeply committed to helping startup founders launch and scale their ventures. O’Brien founded Overline VC along with Michael Cohn 05MBA. During the Siggie Awards’ ceremony, O’Brien said that the work being done at Overline is “an extension and continuation of the work that’s defined [Sig’s] career—which is helping founders get funding at the very earliest stage of their business.”

The Conscious Capital Award, honoring an entity, institution, or individual with a track record of supporting and investing in entrepreneurs and innovative solutions that achieve a measurable social impact in communities in Atlanta and beyond, went to Christy Brown, President, Launchpad2X and a 2021-2023 CEI Entrepreneur in Residence.

Additionally, $4000 of the sponsorship proceeds from this year’s Siggie Awards ceremony went to The Scholarship Academy (TSA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping low-income students create a healthier financial aid culture and secure resources to pursue higher education opportunities without debt.

“It’s my hope the [Siggie Awards] will continue to recognize investors who have taken the time to help entrepreneurs get their startups to a fundable stage and who have also led the charge to secure for them the all-important seed round,” said Mosley. “I’m incredibly proud of what we in the investment and startup communities have collectively achieved.”

Kazanjian and Amelia Schaffner, founding director of the Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, served on the Siggie Awards’ 2021 Host Committee. Saif Nazrul, 23MBA and CEI fellow, acted as the 2021 Siggie Awards program manager. Goizueta is slated to host the event again in 2022.

Created by angel investment enabler Barry Etra and Charlie Goetz, senior lecturer of Organization & Management, the RAISE Forum has seen funding awarded to approximately 28 percent of RAISE Forum startups. (Steven Goudy MD 19EMBA, associate professor and director of pediatric otolaryngology at Emory School of Medicine and founder and CEO, Dr. Noze Best, was one of seven presenting companies at this year’s RAISE Forum.) According to Goetz, helping startups secure investments makes it more likely they’ll stay in the Southeast “as they grow” and ultimately, he explained, “become an important part of our business community.” Startups in any field are encouraged to apply to present at next year’s RAISE Forum by visiting www.raiseforum.com/entrepreneurs.

Are you an alumnus/a, community entrepreneur, innovator, or investor ready to work with Goizueta Business School? Please read more about the many initiatives of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

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The students will research hundreds of entrepreneurs and make investment recommendations to a committee, composed of Goizueta faculty, staff and alumni.

Research shows that while venture capital investments have quadrupled in the past ten years, the growth has not supported underrepresented minority entrepreneurs. 

• Women and minority founders receive less than 3% of capital investments.
• Only 1% of VC-backed founders are Black and less than 2% are Latinx.
• Black entrepreneurs are rejected for loans at a rate almost 20% higher than white entrepreneurs.          

Goizueta Business School assisted in the creation of the $1 million fund. The Peachtree Minority Venture Fund is expected to make its first investments in 2022, with investments ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Students will be named managing partners, senior associates and analysts. They will take a class focused on the fund in which they will receive technical financial training in venture capital investing within a curriculum focused on systemic racial inequities in business. 

Humza Mirza is a Goizueta MBA student and one of the four managing partners of the inaugural cohort. He shares, “After moving to Atlanta during the rise of the racial and social justice movement following the death of George Floyd, it was important for me to help lead a cause that puts real dollars towards alleviating the hurdles underrepresented minorities face every day.”

Robert Kazanjian, the Asa Griggs Candler Chair and professor in Organization & Management and academic director of the center, says, “Through the fund and the academic course experience, Goizueta students will attain a deep understanding of how unconscious bias, the lack of diversity among venture capitalists, and the structure of investors’ personal networks all contribute to these inequities.”

Additional information about the fund including how businesses can apply can be found here –emory.biz/peachtree.  

About Goizueta Business School at Emory University:

Business education has been an integral part of Emory University’s identity since 1919. That kind of longevity and significance does not come without a culture built on success and service. Emory University’s Goizueta Business School offers a unique, community-oriented environment paired with the academic prestige and rigor of a major research institution. Goizueta develops business leaders of today and tomorrow with an undergraduate degree program, a Two-Year Full-Time MBA, a One-Year MBA, an Evening MBA, an Executive MBA, an MS in Business Analytics, a Master of Analytical Finance, a doctoral degree, and a portfolio of non-degree Emory Executive Education courses. Together, the Goizueta community strives to solve the world’s most pressing business problems. The school is named for the late Roberto C. Goizueta, former Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. For more information, visit goizueta.emory.edu.

Emory University is recognized internationally as an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged, and diverse community whose members work collaboratively for positive transformation in the world through courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care, and social action. The university consists of an outstanding liberal arts college, highly ranked professional schools, and one of the larger and more comprehensive healthcare systems in the Southeast.

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Students recognized this void in the venture funding space with underrepresented minority founders receiving less than 3 percent of U.S. venture capital investment. Their research revealed that persistent low wealth in Black, Latinx, and Native American communities equals less access to personal or friends-and-family funding for startups. Additionally, Black entrepreneurs are rejected for loans at a rate nearly 20 percent higher than white entrepreneurs. Only 1 percent of venture capital-backed founders are Black, and less than 2 percent are Latinx. Research also pointed to the fact that a lack of diversity at venture capital firms may be contributing to a lack of access to funding for underrepresented minority entrepreneurs.

To further refine what became the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, the students turned to Robert Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Chair and professor in Organization & Management and academic director of the Center, and Amelia Schaffner, director of the Center.

“From the benchmarking that the students have done, this is the first and only student-run venture fund concentrated on minority entrepreneurs,” says Kazanjian. The fund will prepare students to pursue career opportunities in venture capital as well as to work in the corporate innovation groups within large companies. Through the fund and the academic course experiences, Goizueta students will attain a deep understanding of how unconscious bias, the lack of diversity among venture capitalists, and the structure of investors’ personal networks all contribute to these inequities. 

Goizueta Business School facilitated the creation of the $1 million fund, which will give students a chance to research hundreds of entrepreneurs and determine if an investment can be offered.

For Vergara, who successfully applied to become one of the fund’s five managing partners, the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund is a chance to build on his experience working for Kabbage, an Atlanta startup that connects small businesses to cash flow. He is a VC Fellow for Southeastern Investor Group, a volunteer for Atlanta Techstars, and a judge for Goizueta IMPACT. As an entrepreneur, Vergara aims to widen his network.

“This totally relates to why I chose Goizueta,” he says of the fund.

“My experience has been shaped by being a minority and first-generation graduate who has experienced the issues and injustice that we are all seeing now. To me it’s important to think about racism in the funding space and how tough it is for entrepreneurs to receive resources when their livelihoods are at stake. It’s easy for my passions to align with this fund after navigating education and corporate America. There are institutional obstacles to navigate, not just socioeconomic status.”

How the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund Will Operate

The fund is aligned with the Center and is expected to make its first investments—ranging from $5,000 to $50,000—in 2022.

The first managing partners are Vergara, Alexia M. Brown 22MBA, Dylan Cowley 22MBA, Humza Mirza 22MBA, and Jack Semrau 23EvMBA. Partners will take a class focused on the fund, along with other students who apply to be senior associates and analysts. They will receive technical financial training in venture capital investing within a curriculum focused on entrepreneurship, unconscious bias and other determinants of investment inequities. Prior investment or finance experience is not required.

Students will source between 100 and 200 companies each year, conduct due diligence, and make investment recommendations to the Peachtree Investment Committee, made up of Goizueta faculty, staff, and alumni. The fund will mark all proceeds for reinvestment.

“The Goizueta community has a lot of talent and a lot of heart, because we’re not just getting MBAs. We are seeing problems like injustice and taking action,” says Brown, an attorney entering investment banking. “Bridging that gap of wealth and inequality in this country is better for our economy. When everyone has access to be the best versions of themselves, we are all better off.”

She hopes to one day operate a VC firm to invest in underserved communities in Jamaica, where she was born, and in the Caribbean.

“As a first generation Pakistani-American, I experienced my own struggles but recognize that it doesn’t come close to what Black, Latinx, and Native Americans experience every day,” says Mirza, who plans to return to healthcare startups and make a greater impact with his MBA training.

“Atlanta is a thriving city full of Black and minority entrepreneurs and business owners, and the wealth and impact that has been generated by underrepresented minorities has been achieved despite the institutionalized hurdles. Even though I don’t have any private equity or venture capital experience, I have a strong passion for this mission to provide opportunities to those who may be disenfranchised by established channels.”

“I’ve been so welcomed and embraced at Goizueta that this fund is a way to leave an indelible imprint and a stronger, healthier community,” says Cowley, an asset manager who is becoming a consultant. “We all hope our fund becomes the gold standard in this space.”

Exploring the Roots of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund

Peachtree Minority Venture Fund grew from Unlocking Entrepreneurship, an initiative by Brianna Davis 20MBA and Kristen Little 21MBA within The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute. Their team of students interviewed more than 30 local entrepreneurs, and a major pain point they discovered was access to capital. One solution they considered: Could Goizueta start its own venture capital fund?

Little, Chis Anen 21MBA, Alan Quigley 21MBA, and Willie Sullivan 21MBA worked on the idea through a directed study with Jeff Rosensweig, associate professor of finance and director of The Robson Program for Business, Public Policy, and Government.

“Chis is a Nigerian-American who had a product for hair care in a super-specific market,” says Sullivan, the founder of the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition. “He was raising $1 million in venture capital in a room full of white men, and none of them knew what he was talking about. But one investment team included a Black woman who recognized the large market for the product and persuaded them to invest. Investors are missing out on a lot of great opportunities like that.”

“It’s not enough to say that we support diversity and inclusive environments,” Kazanjian notes. “Our students are saying, ‘We want to go do something to address inequities we have observed.’”

For more information and to get involved, visit the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund website.

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The future of work, from corporate America to main street, has an entrepreneurial spirit to it, and the new The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation offers students, alumni, community members, and corporate partners a portfolio of programs to meet those growing needs and interests. The new center was funded by a gift from the Goizueta Foundation in late 2019.

Emory University and the Goizueta Business School launched the center to a global audience of corporate leaders, venture capitalists, students, prospective students, faculty, staff and community partners at a February 11 event. The program featured an address from Bill Carr 94MBA, an entrepreneur and former Amazon VP for 15 years, who is co-author of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon.

The center’s launch comes as leading business schools are placing increased emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation-related programming. Growing numbers of students develop new business ideas or even start companies while still in school. For some, a startup might be their career focus right away, while others might take a more traditional corporate job with intentions to launch entrepreneurial ventures later in their careers.

“Even in large corporations, you see people experiencing many career pathways because it’s a more flexible work environment,” center director of entrepreneurship Amelia Schaffner said.

“The old model of having just one specialized skillset or career path is obsolete. For those who have tried entrepreneurship this new model is more natural. They fit much better in this future of work that we’re starting to see evolve. Having multi-disciplinary and cross-vertical experiences, which entrepreneurship and innovation allow for, provide the necessary skills to navigate uncertain and complex scenarios, even if you stay within the large corporate world.”

At the launch event, in a conversation with Robert Kazanjian, the academic director of the center and Asa Griggs Candler professor of organization and management, Carr shared advice for students who are interested in building a startup, or being an intrapreneur at a large company.

Elevating Commitment to Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The center’s launch represents an expanded scope and elevated commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation for the Goizueta Business School. The school offers more than 15 different courses for undergraduate and graduate students from introductory to advanced skills which will help develop the entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, investors, and innovators of tomorrow.

“This generous contribution from the Goizueta Foundation creates a greater degree of sustainability to the programs that we have across three major domains: supporting students in starting up a new business; giving students exposure to the investment side of entrepreneurship; and helping them learn about innovation in large complex organizations,” Kazanjian said. “What we’re excited about is the opportunity to expand and sustain many of the programs that we’ve been refining over the last couple of years.”

The way business schools have adapted also mirrors changes in how large, established companies operate. “There used to be a very distinct difference between how large companies innovate and what entrepreneurs did,” Kazanjian said. “We’re starting to see large companies using entrepreneurship as a model for internal innovation.”

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is designed to promote entrepreneurship and innovation across the Goizueta community fueled by critical inquiry, and developed to serve fundamental societal needs. The center supports the application of sound business principles, presented in ways that open possibilities and foster imagination. The center has three areas of focus:

• Entrepreneurship: Support of students and alumni in the launch of their new business ideas
• Investing: Development of competence and connections in support of financing and funding of new businesses
• Innovation: Opportunities to study best practice in innovation in large complex organizations

The center sits at an ideal location both on campus, and in the greater Atlanta area. It is part of Emory and in the vicinity to the CDC and the Carter Center among Atlanta landmarks. Goizueta also has a partnership with the fourth-largest incubator in the U.S., the Atlanta Tech Village.

The Atlanta ecosystem is blossoming with more than 100 public companies, 16 Fortune 500s, 40 corporate innovation centers, almost 600 venture-backed startups including a dozen unicorns, multiple incubators, diverse talent, international opportunities and growing industries in the areas of fintech, healthcare and biomed, logistics, e-sports, music and film.

Among the examples of how students can get involved include an entrepreneurship practicum course to work with startups for the RAISE Forum, a weekly opportunity to pitch the professors, an annual entrepreneurship summit, a 3-month long accelerator, and more. A strategy capstone course focuses on valuation and management clients who have innovation in their goals.

Alumni can get involved in several ways, including being among the seasoned and serial entrepreneurs and investors who participate in campus events and offer inspiration, mentoring, teaching, and judging.

“It is our desire to create a vibrant community of alumni and students who are entrepreneurs, investors and innovators, expanding opportunities, deepening connections, and supporting those who are solving big problems in the world,” Schaffner said. 

Learn more about the The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and get involved at emory.biz/innovate​.

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Entrepreneur Gabe Damiani 11EMBA knew in 2010 that something important was missing. His startup, iVision, employed 80 people and was grossing $16 million as a boutique IT consultancy. Yet Damiani questioned whether he had the skills needed as a CEO to keep iVision growing, so he enrolled in the Executive MBA program at Goizueta Business School.

“I had the entrepreneur’s curse like no other,” Damiani said in a recent interview, recalling how he had invested everything, including his 401(K), into starting iVision.

“Business was accelerating. I was hands on everything, in the middle of financials and human resources. I needed to transition from startup entrepreneur,” he explained. “Goizueta gave me a new network and the aha moment where I could pivot to become more of a seasoned executive and grow iVision.”

When iVision grossed $80 million in 2019, attracted its first round of outside capital investment in August 2020, and Damiani became a 2020 Southeast finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year, the Goizueta influence was everywhere and remains that way today. At Goizueta, Damiani learned the importance for an entrepreneur to surround himself or herself with the best people possible.

Three 2011 EMBA classmates work closely with Damiani—Tom McDavid, Seema Camp, senior director of service delivery team, and Mark Argyle, director of marketing and chair of the iVision council.

After receiving his EMBA degree in 2011, Damiani hired two Goizueta Business School faculty, Peter A. Topping and Roderick Gilkey, to coach the iVision executives on their teamwork and conduct leadership development activities for its senior managers.

Damiani, Topping, and Gilkey point to the iVision trajectory as education for entrepreneurs: the skills that got your company going in the first place often are not what you need for long-term growth, and you must intentionally find and fill those gaps.

“Gabe’s sharing of leadership responsibilities with his key partners at iVision is much more difficult to do than it appears,” Topping said. “Current and future entrepreneurs need high levels of self-awareness and to be able to acknowledge both their strengths and limitations. It is a sign of maturity and wisdom to share power for the benefit of the whole.”

The power of trust

Damiani’s lightbulb moment came in the third semester of his EMBA program. He was facing personal and professional challenges as he worked 60 hours a week at iVision while putting another 30 into his studies. The team project that semester was the program’s toughest, and Damiani wasn’t sure his team had the collective skills or drive to deliver a successful project. They ended up exceeding the sum of their parts by developing immense trust.

“Without much fanfare, everybody played to each other’s strengths,” he said of his EMBA colleagues. “It was phenomenal. No one was trying to be right. I consider myself kind of a misfit, and we were a cool group of misfits who had found each other. That semester’s team was my highest performing team, and from that experience, when I went back into my business, I was able to cut to the chase: Do we have each other’s back? Do we invest in each other? Do we play to strengths as true teammates, or is someone trying to be the loudest person in the room? Are we really focused on moving the organization forward or individuals forward? The high performing team does not need to be a bunch of Michael Jordans, but people who trust each other and focus on getting the sand out of each other’s gears to reach their potential. That was my biggest takeaway out of the EMBA program.”

By discovering what made each other tick, Damiani and his three colleagues paved the way to their present relationships at iVision. All had come to Goizueta seeking to fill gaps in their business pursuits. For example, McDavid was leading an investment team at a major firm, with $100 billion in assets under his team’s management, but his undergraduate training had been in math and music.

“What Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization and Management Robert Kazanjian taught us about organizational behavior changed forever the way I look at work culture, and Gabe already thought strategically like Kazanjian was teaching us,” McDavid said. “Gabe’s intellect, experience, and authenticity stood out, and he may have been the only CEO in our program.”

For Argyle, the EMBA camaraderie “gave me a new appreciation for each classmate’s strengths and talents. When I had the chance to work with Gabe, I quickly realized I greatly valued his strategic thinking and leadership abilities in and out of the classroom. This led to a conversation, after graduation, regarding my joining the iVision team, and I’ve been here ever since. Gabe has remained the same person throughout iVision’s success. He’s helped me build my career and strengthen my own strategic thinking and leadership capabilities.”

Camp noted, “What I enjoyed most about the EMBA program at Goizueta was how it was grounded in collaboration and teamwork. That type of environment is what I am naturally drawn to and thrive in. When I met Gabe and he described the work culture he cultivated at iVision, that same theme of teamwork echoed,” she said. “Happy to say that since I joined six years ago, we are still the team-focused culture that I love.”

Today, Damiani is co-CEO and founder of iVision. By shifting his perception of how to best lead the company, the EMBA program reinforced that he didn’t need to micromanage iVision; he let go of some responsibilities and expectations and positioned himself to do what he did best. His role evolved to welcome feedback and accept when his leadership team didn’t agree on everything. These are key ways that he is “future-proofing” his startup.

“We have always been about long-term value and earning clients for life,” he said. Damiani is energized by long-term vision. “I help my team to play to each other’s strengths and take the feedback so we can move forward. When you lock arm and arm with folks who have the same values across diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and you support each other, there is nothing you cannot accomplish.”

Read more about faculty insight for entrepreneurs.

If you are interested in building your network and expanding your business capabilities, learn more about Goizueta’s EMBA degree or one of its other MBA programs.

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In the fall of 2018, Omar Rodriguez-Vila received a call from J.B. Kurish, professor in the practice of finance and a former investment banker. He’d just received a call from Bill Rogers, president and COO, Truist Financial Corporation. Rogers had just read “Competing on Social Purpose,” a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article written by Omar Rodríguez-Vilà, associate professor in the practice of marketing at Emory’s Goizueta Business School, and wanted to know if Rodriguez could meet with him. Rogers had a business transformation story he thought might interest him.

Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Chair and professor of organization & management, went with Rodríguez-Vilà to meet with Rogers, who included his entire senior management team in the meeting. For more than an hour and a half, Rogers and his team recounted the story of SunTrust’s transformation from an institution struggling after the financial crisis of 2008 into a purpose-driven company that merged with BB&T in 2019 to become Truist, the sixth largest bank in the U.S. with $488 billion in assets. Kazanjian was amazed by the exchange.

“I remember walking out of that session and Omar and I looked at each other and within a nanosecond agreed this would be an absolutely great opportunity to write a case. There was a lot going on there that could be the basis for good class discussions,” Kazanjian explained to students, alumni, and other guests during the latest Learning & Leading: Goizueta Distinguished Speaker Series, featuring Rogers.

For the speakers series, Rogers reunited online with Kazanjian and Rodríguez-Vilà to discuss SunTrust’s transformational journey, the business case that came out of it, and why SunTrust and BB&T’s common quest to be purpose-driven companies gave Rogers the confidence that the 2019 merger wouldn’t just work financially, but culturally as well.

Finding the “why”

In May 2010, Emory Executive Education partnered with SunTrust to develop the SunTrust Advanced Leadership Program for the bank’s executives. Designed to drive strategic imperatives, approximately 250 SunTrust executives went through the program before it wrapped up in May 2019 (Emory Executive Education is currently working with Truist to establish a similar program). Kazanjian worked closely with SunTrust leadership to design the program. SunTrust leadership challenged Goizueta “to include material in the [leadership] program that was responsive” to SunTrust’s strategic needs, Kazanjian explained. Goizueta faculty also had extraordinary access to SunTrust leadership. “We were able to interact with senior executives on a regular basis as they came into the classroom,” he said. The relationships built over the course of SunTrust’s Advanced Leadership Program were instrumental in creating the business case.

The first time Rogers spoke to Kazanjian’s strategy class was in 2011, shortly after Rogers had become CEO (he was appointed president and CEO in June 2011 and became chairman and CEO of SunTrust in January 2012). At the time, SunTrust was struggling to overcome the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. The public’s trust in financial institutions had fallen from 75 percent of Americans stating they had confidence in financial institutions prior to the crisis to just 45 percent following the crisis. And SunTrust’s net income growth had declined by nearly 40 percent over a five-year period.

As CEO, it was Rogers’ job to right the ship and to position the company for the future. As he spoke to Kazanjian’s students, Rogers highlighted how he planned to change the bank’s balance sheet. But the students pressed him on why he was making certain decisions. “We had a debate back and forth and I had lousy answers,” said Rogers. “It was terrible.”

Not long after his interaction with Kazanjian’s class, Rogers spent the afternoon at a SunTrust branch to observe some of the new strategic initiatives in action. As the branch manager got ready to leave for the evening, she took off her SunTrust name badge. Rogers noticed and asked her why she took it off.

She had errands to run, she explained, and didn’t “want everyone to know I work for a bank,” said Rogers. “I promised her that night, you are going to be proud of where you work and you’re going to be proud of the industry you work for.” At that moment, Rogers knew he not only needed to make a strategic turn, but a cultural turn as well.

On becoming a purpose-driven company

As Rogers explained to viewers during the Goizueta Speakers Series, the journey to become a purpose-driven company began with a search for best practices. Rogers called nearly a dozen fellow CEOs to pick their brains. He and his leadership team read everything they could find on the subject. “We found there really wasn’t a great curriculum on purpose,” Rogers said. So he told his leadership team, “Why don’t we write the book on purpose?”

The leadership team concluded that SunTrust could build trust in the bank and in the financial industry by helping people “take the first step towards financial confidence,” he said. They’d do so by offering programs and products that would help people build financial security and reduce financial stress. They adopted a purpose statement: “Lighting the Way to Financial Wellbeing,” and established the audacious goal of helping five million people take their first step toward financial confidence.

Internal polling of SunTrust employees revealed that employees mirrored the rest of Americans: 40 percent of them didn’t have $1000 saved for an emergency, and a third of them had no money saved for retirement.

As a result of the employee survey, Rogers decided that the path to financial wellbeing started inside SunTrust. As an incentive, the company gave employees who completed a financial wellness program $1000 to set up emergency savings accounts. By May 2019, more than 80 percent of employees “all up and down the income stream” explained Rogers, had completed the program, with approximately $13 million given to employees.

Along the way, the company created a number of initiatives and policies to incorporate purpose into everything it did.

Before SunTrust and BB&T merged, Rogers knew the financial reasoning behind creating Truist was compelling, but it was BB&T’s commitment to purpose that sealed the deal. “That was the glue,” Rogers explained. “The real, true foundational connection point for us was purpose. We are both purpose-driven companies.” When Rogers and Kelly King, chairman and CEO, Truist Financial Corporation, explained the merger to employees, “We didn’t talk about the cost savings. We didn’t talk about technology investment. We just talked about purpose, mission and values,” said Rogers.

Making the Case

When Rodríguez-Vilà and Kazanjian asked Rogers if they could create a business case study that documented SunTrust’s quest to become a purpose-driven company, he agreed. According to Rodríguez-Vilà, he and Kazanjian wanted the case, “SunTrust: Becoming a Purpose-Driven Company” to define what it means to be a purpose-driven company, to study the “level of implementation” of that purpose, and to quantify the impact that being purpose-driven has on all the various stakeholders—from company employees to the community.

Rodríguez-Vilà recruited three of his top students to help—all of whom had shown interest in purpose-driven companies when he’d taught his Harvard Business Review article in his first-year marketing class, shortly before he got the call from Rogers. Nicole Mejias 21EvMBA, also Rodriguez-Vila’s teaching assistant, Hannah Courtney 21EvMBA, and Gopal Pappu 21EvMBA, worked on the case in 2019, researching the bank and industry. By spring 2020, they had permission to pursue the case as a directed study that earned them class credit. While putting the case together, the students had extraordinary access to SunTrust leadership.

When Rodríguez-Vilà and Kazanjian interviewed members of SunTrust’s management team—including Rogers—the students were in the room. “They asked some of the questions,” Rodriguez-Vila said. “They could not believe they were hearing the CEO of SunTrust reflect on this journey.”

“Some people were doubting the whole process, but [Rogers] did it anyway, and I think that’s just remarkable,” said Mejias, a senior strategic account manager at Microsoft. She was surprised at how different the SunTrust story was compared to other business cases she’d studied. “The number one North Star was not financial metrics,” she said, adding that the majority of business cases revolve around numbers.

Ultimately, the decision to center SunTrust as a purpose-driven company did positively affect the business, but that wasn’t clear when Rogers made the decision to do so. “This was not something everybody wanted to do but Bill Rogers really had the foresight to say, ‘No, this is right,’” explained Mejias. This past semester, Kazanjian taught the SunTrust case to Executive MBA students for the first time. “It was a joy to teach,” he told Rogers during the speaker series. “This topic is going to be more front and center as time unfolds.”

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