UB MBAs Win First Place at APICS Conference

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A team of two MBA students from the University at Buffalo School of Management were awarded first place at the Student Poster Session of the international conference for APICS, The Association for Operations Management, in October.

Second-year MBAs Ore Ajakaiye and Preetha Narayanaswamy won for their submission, "Sustainability: Driving the Strategic Imperative in Supply Chain Management." They shared first place with one other team.

Ajakaiye and Narayanaswamy participated in the APICS International Conference and Expo in Las Vegas under APICS sponsorship as part of the APICS Future Leaders Program. The two were among only eight students chosen nationwide to participate in the year-long mentoring program.

"The conference was a great experience for us," says Ajakaiye. "We met members of the APICS board of directors and the Body of Knowledge (BOK) of APICS and the APICS Buffalo chapter board of directors gave us enormous support."

Ajakaiye is pursuing a concentration in the School of Management's global services and supply management option, and Narayanaswamy is pursuing dual concentrations in finance and supply chains and operations management.

Under the mentorship of APICS board of directors chair Karl Klaesius, CPIM, C.P.M., Ajakaiye and Narayanaswamy will work with senior-level operations and supply chain professionals to better understand the knowledge, skills and qualities exhibited by effective leaders in the profession.

The students will receive additional training in the form of monthly, hour-long conference calls and serve on a special task force with Klaesius. They will have a chance to present the task force's findings to the organization's board in October 2011.

The UB School of Management is recognized for its emphasis on real-world learning, community and economic impact, and the global perspective of its faculty, students and alumni. The school has been ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal for the quality of its programs and the return on investment it provides its graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit http://mgt.buffalo.edu.