Stanford GSB: Stanford Business February 2000

Stanford Business

February 2000, Volume 68, Number 2

Spreadsheet One
*Beyond Grey Pinstripes
*Nothing But the Best
*E-Buzz at Reunion Panels Spreadsheet Two
*New Ventures
*Neale Scores a Win-Win
*Brewing Up Dinner Spreadsheet Three
*New President for SBSAA
*First Comes Love...
*Business School Alums on
Search Team

A Closer Look: Robert Loew
A Closer Look: Laura Hattendorf and Ashley Boren
For The Record: MBA Class of 1999 Employment Report

Spreadsheet Two

New Ventures
CHINAREN.COM, with 70 employees, most of them in China, may be the largest venture so far to come out of the MBA Class of 1999. Founded by Joseph Chen, MBA '99, and two Stanford graduate engineers, ChinaRen (literally "China people") offers news and chatrooms in Chinese. The company boasts funding from more than a dozen GSBers from Chen's class and the MBA Class of 2000. The best way to view the Web site, www.chinaren.com, is to use Internet Explorer 5 with simplified Chinese font or Netscape Navigator with njstar.

ONECORE FINANCIAL NETWORK was founded out of frustration by Barry Star, MBA '84, when his bank charged him 85 cents to deposit $100,000 in his business account. Star now offers a range of financial services—payroll, bill payment, 401(k) administration, and more—to small businesses. His clients at www.onecore.com put their operating cash into OneCore partners' money market accounts and pay fees to OneCore while earning money market rates. Pamela Brewster, MBA '87, is director of marketing communications.

SNOWBALL.COM bills itself as "the voice of the Internet generation." This sassy conglomeration of online magazines that only a 12- to 29-year-old could love was put together by Mark Jung, MBA '87; Teresa Crummett, MBA '86; and Mark Orsak, MBA '90, none of whom can expect to see 29 again. Great marketing potential, however, as Time-Warner's New Line Cinema recently demonstrated when it put undisclosed millions into Snowball. If MTV seems a little long in the tooth for you, meet the real Real World at www.snowball.com.

Neale Scores a Win-Win
ASSOCIATE DEAN Margaret Neale received the SBSAA's Robert K. Jaedicke Silver Apple Award at reunion weekend in October. The Apple, which is presented annually by the alumni association to honor a GSB faculty member for contributions to the School's grads, was presented by William Miller, last year's winner.

Neale traveled widely to earn the honor. A frequent speaker at chapter events, she also was a keynoter at Stanford's International Alumni Conference in Paris last March and the featured speaker at two GSB Metro events in Australia, where she spoke to alums and other corporate leaders in Sydney and Melbourne. In October, Neale led a workshop on rational negotiating at the GSB Women's Conference in New York.

"I'm feeling a little guilty about taking an award for doing things that make me feel really good," Neale said. "After all, I got to go to Paris and give a talk to a room filled with people who thought what I was saying was interesting!"

Brewing Up Dinner

Illustration by Edd Patton

ROAD WARRIORS, TAKE HEART: A home-cooked meal is as close as your hotel room coffee pot. I kid you not, and for the most part neither does Peter Mazonson, MBA '89, the author of Cooking Without a Kitchen: The Coffeemaker Cookbook.
"With tongue—and a mouthful of fresh, parboiled vegetables—planted firmly in cheek, I am offering a cooking solution for the road-hardened, palate-deadened American traveler and others who cook in cramped quarters," writes Mazonson, an otherwise respectable fellow who is a physician and vice president of an international health outcomes assessment firm.

Before you hit the lobby in the morning, Mazonson suggests you serve up hot cereal, soft-boiled eggs, or scrambled eggs with cheese. Can't face another restaurant dinner? Try poaching a salmon filet in the ubiquitous coffee pot or steaming pasta to serve with bottled marinara sauce or pesto. After-dinner guests? There's nothing quite so impressive as a chocolate fondue for three.

For best results Mazonson suggests traveling with basic measuring utensils and spices, a small, unbreakable bottle of white vinegar—and lots of extra coffee filters. A good hotel room will come equipped with supporting appliances like a minibar and a blowdryer, he notes, the latter to keep your scrambled eggs warm while your coffee cooks. Always aim straight at the food: "It can literally blow the eggs right off your plate," Mazonson warns. Caution also dictates that small children and teens take on other tasks. "Little ones might blow the food away by accident, and the adolescents might blow it away on purpose."

The Coffeemaker Cookbook is available on the Web and from MCB Publications of San Antonio, whose other titles include The Road Kill Cookbook. This one is more appetizing.