PROGRAM SNAPSHOT:
Real estate at W. P. Carey

Program snapshot:

“Teaching students to be socially and environmentally responsible community builders while they learn how to make a profit and grow a community is more important than ever,” says Mark Stapp, Fred E. Taylor Professor of Real Estate. “Real estate knowledge can help solve critical affordability issues, ensure continued quality growth, and avoid another Great Recession.”

The Division of Real Estate at W. P. Carey addresses the complexity of the field and its far-reaching effects on our communities and economy.

The nine-month W. P. Carey Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program offers an innovative, transdisciplinary, collaborative approach involving four ASU schools: the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, W. P. Carey, and the Del E. Webb School of Construction. Students work closely in class and on required projects. They have access to leading professional organizations and their members. They can consult with the W. P. Carey Real Estate Advisory Board and join a robust alumni network of MRED graduates working in and leading the global real estate development industry.

Amplifying the voices of women in infrastructure

or much of her career, Natasha Ozybko (EMBA ’22) has been one of the only women in a meeting or team. “There were so few women in my industry and leadership positions that it was difficult to navigate the corporate ladder without losing my identity,” she says.

She recognized the lack of content for women in historically male-dominated infrastructure sectors. “My now-business partner and I decided we were going to change that,” she says. Together with co-founder Monica Dutcher, Ozybko created MOXY: The Voice of Women in Infrastructure for women who work in sectors from highways to alternative energy, and beyond.

Ozybko never planned on starting a business — especially while pursuing her Executive MBA. “My EMBA cohort and professors supported me in launching MOXY and have been with me every step of the way in creating it.”

MOXY curates multilingual articles (English, Spanish, and French) covering topics such as leadership development, mental health, entrepreneurship, work-life balance, immigration, and diversity.

“Our goal is to inform, empower, and inspire women in infrastructure,” Ozybko says. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised that half of our readers are men! I believe they are trying to understand our experiences, create more inclusive environments, and be better advocates.”

The evolution of the online MBA

Bringing together management and technology for over two decades

he W. P. Carey School’s Online MBA program dates back to 2000, when the school began offering courses to John Deere employees who sought high-quality management training but couldn’t interrupt their careers. The college had been looking for ways to use the internet to bring its programs to a broader population and, based on the positive response from corporate partners and their employees, a dedicated Online MBA program seemed the perfect opportunity to join the “e-learning” market.

One of the first at a top-ranked business school, the W. P. Carey Online MBA was born in 2004. Back then, faculty taught courses over the web via email and CD-ROMs. Yet it was never the type of program where students dropped in, got their assignments, and were on their own.

Then and now, participants come to ASU for an intense orientation, meet with faculty, and engage in team-building activities. They also meet with faculty at the end of each five-week course. Students receive an applied project that requires teamwork and problem-solving skills. Additionally, the Online MBA delivers the same course content as the Full-time and Evening MBA.

“We bring students into the ASU fold; they aren’t faceless strangers on the internet. They are fellow Sun Devils, and we make every effort to get to know students on a personal level,” says Kate Eaton, clinical associate professor of marketing and ​​assistant dean of MBA programs.

Stories of Sun Devil Giving

very year, the ASU community supports causes university-wide on Sun Devil Giving Day. This annual day is a significant source of scholarship funding for students who might not otherwise attend college or have the ability to continue their education when confronted with financial setbacks.

In 2022, many W. P. Carey community members gave to the school’s Kay A. Faris Emergency Scholarship Fund, which has provided emergency scholarships directly to W. P. Carey undergraduate students with immediate financial needs since 2015.

“This scholarship is unique because recipients don’t have to repay it. It’s also available every semester, not just during the traditional application season,” says Kay A. Faris, the fund’s namesake, who retired from the W. P. Carey School in 2021 after nearly 40 years of service. “Of the students awarded this scholarship, the majority are still enrolled or have graduated.”

We can’t thank our donors enough for their support and generosity. Sun Devil Giving Day 2022 was a huge success, with more than 260 donors collectively raising more than $30,000 for W. P. Carey. These gifts will have a major impact.

Sparking positive change, together

efore Lelle Wang (MBA ’23) relocated to Arizona, her whole life had been in China, where she had a stable career as a product manager and nearly a decade of experience in telecom. Moving to the U.S. inspired her to look into MBA programs.

Wang earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science in China and thought a stateside MBA would enhance her career opportunities. “I had the technical side of the knowledge but hadn’t studied business in a systematic way,” she says.

Having lived in a non-English-speaking culture and environment before coming to ASU, she describes the experience of earning a Full-time MBA in the U.S. as challenging, rewarding, and inspiring.

“When I couldn’t express myself freely, I was nervous about speaking in English or having an interview with an employer,” she says. One-on-one meetings with her career coach made a huge difference, as did the support of her peers.

Wang looks forward to continuing the school’s legacy after she graduates. “I try to realize the Carey Code,” she says. “We are people from W. P. Carey. We want to maintain this reputation.”

The Carey Code is a collective promise to the ideals of our school and the values we bring to all that we do.

Visit careycode.com to learn more.

Leveraging business skills to build communities

n fall 2021, Shaandiin Parrish (MiM ’22) joined with fellow W. P. Carey School of Business students Hiram Bowen (BS Economics ’25) and Lakota Kinlicheenie (BA Business ’25) to relaunch the Native American Business Organization (NABO) at ASU after a four-year hiatus. W. P. Carey interviewed Parrish to learn more about the club and her journey to business school.

The focus of NABO, a student-driven club, is to help members excel academically, develop professional business skills, and promote cultural and social awareness to the ASU community and its affiliates.

“We also want to inspire more Native American students to consider applying and pursuing a business degree,” Parrish says.

“Although our demographic is small at W. P. Carey, the support is tremendous,” she says. “In five years, I hope that we grow the number of Native American business students because our communities need business knowledge.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Parrish stood alongside President of the Navajo Nation Jonathan Nez to distribute personal protective equipment, food, water, supplies, and other necessities. “The pandemic hit our population hard because 30% does not have running water, another 30% does not have electricity, and a greater portion does not have internet services,” she says. “Major infrastructure flaws caused many of our people to die. So I knew we needed a change.”

Parrish’s grandparents raised her to focus on the Navajo community. “My grandfather Paul Parrish, a Navajo code talker, used his G.I. Bill to go to business school,” she says. “In the 1970s, he used his education to open one of the first gas stations in the Navajo Nation.”

Her grandfather’s vision for their community inspired Parrish to dedicate her life to public service. “I decided to pursue a business degree because business school teaches you how to make quick, confident decisions, and that’s what our people need,” she says. “I chose W. P. Carey because it was one of the best business schools close to my reservation.

“I could learn four days a week at W. P. Carey and drive five hours north to be with my community and apply the skills I learned in my classes.”

W. P. Carey has equipped Parrish to talk to her communities about possibilities for their economy in the Navajo Nation. “I’ve been able to teach basic financial education and encourage young people to start businesses,” she says. “I know I will always call W. P. Carey my home because it allowed me to help my home in the Navajo Nation.”

Creating a path forward

Julia LaRosa, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, is one of the members of the W. P. Carey community who teaches in the program. LaRosa focuses on workplace readiness skills through business fundamentals, business communication, and professional development courses. “While the curriculum focuses on business skills, it’s also focused on building students’ self-efficacy, or their belief that they can implement the skills they learn,” she explains. “This disrupts some of the messages many of those women have heard up to this point in their lives.”

W. P. Carey Full-time MBA students also assist in the program, offering services including résumé review, interviewing practice, and financial literacy training. Volunteering in the program creates new connections while giving MBA students the chance to grow their leadership skills. Further, it answers the ASU Charter’s call to judge ourselves by “who we include and how they succeed” and to grow our embeddedness in the communities we serve.

So far, the PATHS program has seen tremendous success. Of the women who have graduated from the program, 100% have jobs, and none have returned to jail or prison. “It’s compelling to witness the effect this kind of program can have,” LaRosa says. “It’s one thing to know that education can change lives, but it’s another to witness the transformation.”

Teaming up with Salesforce to close the digital skills gap

“We’re excited to partner with ASU to expand their workforce development program. It will unlock new sources of talent by driving Salesforce skills that lead students to career pathways in the Salesforce ecosystem,” says Amy Regan Morehouse, senior vice president of the Trailhead Academy.

Salesforce’s Trailhead Academy will help ASU build and validate in-demand digital skills with expert-led learning programs, role-based credentials, and workforce development strategies designed to fuel net-new talent.

As a Salesforce Authorized Training Provider, ASU can:

• Leverage Trailhead Academy resources and the certified instructor community to empower faculty.
• Lean on Salesforce for tailored guidance and program management across workforce development initiatives.
• Deliver Salesforce training to students using up-to-date course materials, exercise guides, and experiential projects that simulate real organizational configurations provided by Trailhead Academy.
• Certify and validate students’ expertise using discounted exam vouchers.

While the Salesforce economy grows, so does the demand for digital skills. By 2025, employers’ need for digital skills will rise by more than 50%, which means employees will require adding to their existing skillset and learning news skills for an entirely different job to succeed in their future work.

Within W. P. Carey, the partnership with Salesforce will expand upon the existing AZNext program that addresses the need for more skilled workers in IT roles. “The partnership will greatly enable AZNext to increase talent diversity in the technology sector and address the acute shortage of trained workforce in the Salesforce ecosystem,” says Raghu Santanam, executive director of the Department of Labor-funded digital workforce initiative AZNext. Santanam is also a professor of information systems, McCord Chair in Business, and senior associate dean for Executive Education, Corporate Partnerships, and Lifelong Learning.

Visit wpcarey.asu.edu/aznext to learn more.

Fun, food, and finance

e’s fluent in Hebrew and fond of gangster movies and books that make him emotional.

He’s a finance professor by trade and recently started his new post at Arizona State University as dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Meet Ohad Kadan.

After an intense national search, Kadan left his position as the vice dean for Education and Globalization and the H. Frederick Hagemann Jr. Professor of Finance at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis to report for work at the Tempe campus in Arizona on July 1.

Since then, he’s hit the ground running. Kadan has been holding planning sessions with faculty and key personnel, finding new ways for innovation, setting long and short-term goals, and adjusting from a private school setting to a public university.

We spoke to Kadan a few weeks into his new tenure. Here’s what he had to say about his new and unfolding adventure.