February 2003
"Business Strategies in the Current Environment"
February 19, 2003
Industry Speakers
Scott Davis
Chief Financial Officer,
United Parcel Service
Scott Davis is the Chief Financial Officer of UPS. He is also a member of the UPS Management Committee, which oversees the day-to-day management of the company. As CFO, Davis is responsible for all activities related to accounting, auditing, finance, financial planning, taxes and treasury. He also acts as a liaison to the finance, investor and analyst communities.UPS's sound financial management and growth fuel the company's expansion into new and complementary businesses that enable global commerce. With 30 years of consistent growth in revenue and net income, UPS is poised to deliver a sound future for its employees, customers, investors and business partners. A native of Oregon, Davis earned a B.S. degree in Finance from Portland State University. After completing college, he spent several years with Arthur Andersen. Davis also completed an advanced management program at the Wharton School of Business.Jason GreeneAssociate Professor of Finance in the Robinson College of BusinessJason Greene is an Associate Professor of Finance in the Robinson College of Business and has been at Georgia State University since 1996. Dr. Greene earned his Ph.D. in Finance from Indiana University where he focused his dissertation on trading costs, order handling rules, and financial market structure. His primary teaching areas include valuation of risky assets, investments, derivatives, and financial markets, at the undergraduate, MBA, and PhD levels. Jason's research concentrates on financial markets and mutual funds, including fund flows, trading costs, and market liquidity.In addition to publishing research articles in leading academic journals such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation, and Financial Management, he has worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission designing order handling and trading regulations. His research has been cited in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Barron's, BusinessWeek Online, Securities Week, the Wall Street Journal, and SEC rule-making documents, among others. Jason's most recent research studies the impact of high-frequency fund flows on open-end mutual funds.
Jim Grissett
Principal
The Parthenon Group
Jim Grissett is a Principal with The Parthenon Group, which provides portfolio advisory services to investors in real estate securities, with a primary focus on equity REITs. For the four years ended March, 2001, Parthenon's institutional clients achieved returns that exceeded the NAREIT and Morgan Stanley index benchmarks in every year by an average of over 600 basis points annually. This is believed to be among the best results generated by investment advisors in this sector during that time. These results reflect Parthenon's clients' core accounts, in addition to which they offer conservative hedge fund and high yield real estate securities products.Jim was also one of two original partners involved with The Parthenon Group's selection in 1994 to manage the leasing and repositioning of Peachtree Center, Atlanta's largest urban mixed use project at 2.4 million square feet.Jim received his Master's degree in City Planning from Georgia Tech and his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University. He also earned the CCIM designation for investment property professionals from the National Association of Realtors, one of the first consultants to do so.
Karen See
Chief Executive Officer
Abovo Marketing Group
Abovo Group provides marketing services to companies in need of business transformation. Events driving these needs can include mergers, corporate/product launches, market expansions or reinvention of the organization and its offerings.As part of these services, Abovo Group delivers strategic counsel and planning, big idea creative campaign development and technology infrastructure consulting to accomplish its mission.As founder and CEO, Karen leads the creative strategy team and has helped over 100 companies through the transformation process.Karen is very active in the Atlanta and high-tech communities, having served on boards such as The Entrepreneur's Foundation; CEO High Tech Council; Technology Executive Roundtable; Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce; the American Israeli Chamber of Commerce; Women in Technology; and Business & Technology Alliance.
Steve Palm
President
Smart Numbers, Inc.
Steve Palm is President of Smart Numbers LLC, a leading provider of residential real estate information, analysis, and forecasting for brokers, builder/developers, and mortgage and banking professionals in Atlanta. He is regularly quoted in major Atlanta publications for housing trends and conditions. For the last 6 years, Steve has also been the exclusive provider of housing statistics to the AJC for their annual housing review.Smart Numbers regularly consults with most of the major homebuilders and developers in Atlanta. Clients include Pulte Homes, Ryland Homes, Ashton Atlanta, Morrison Homes, MDC homes, Pathway, Johnson/Neel, etc. Smart Numbers also provides all marketing analysis for Homebanc, Atlanta's number one mortgage lender, as well as real estate analysis for all major Atlanta real estate companies: Coldwell Banker, Harry Norman, Prudential, RE/MAX, etc. Current major projects include a growth analysis for the Mall of Georgia and, most recently, Atlantic Station. Smart Numbers' services are available for the Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Miami markets.Steve Palm is a MBA graduate in Finance & Marketing of the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Conference Program
| 8:00 a.m. | Registration & Coffee | |
| 8:30 a.m. | Welcome | Sidney Harris Dean Dean J. Mack Robinson College of Business |
| 8:35 a.m. | Synchronized Commerce & its Role in Economic Growth | Scott Davis [read bio] Chief Financial Officer United Parcel Service |
| 8:55 am. | Stock Market Sentiment & Mutual Fund Performance | Jason Greene [read bio] Associate Professor J.Mack Robinson College of Business |
| 9:15 a.m. | Rapidly Evolving Role of REIT's in Commercial Real Estate & Your Investment Portfolio | Jim Grissett [read bio] Principal The Parthenon Group |
| 9:35 a.m. | The Role of Marketing & Technology in Corporations | Karen See [read bio] Chief Executive Officer Abovo Group |
| 9:55 a.m. | Q & A | |
| 10:05 a.m. | Refreshments Break | |
| 10:25 a.m. | Atlanta Housing Trends for 2003: Boom or Burst? | Steve Palm [read bio] President Smart Numbers |
| 10:45 a.m. | Forecast of the Nation, State and the Region | Rajeev Dhawan [read bio] Director Economic Forecasting Center J. Mack Robinson College of Business Georgia State University |
| 11:35 a.m. | Final Remarks and Q & A | |
| 11:45 a.m. | Light Lunch and Networking |
