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COVER STORY SCHOOL COLORS: UNLV business students wear sweatshirts with the new name of the business school during the announcement of the Lee family's $15 million donation. Nevada community, including sustainability, economic diversity and the future of commercial development. • Educational outreach. UNLV offers continuing education courses and a number of national certification programs among its outreach services. Programs range from sommelier certification to paralegal studies and nonprofit management and human resources. The contract training division uses UNLV faculty expertise as well as instructors from the professional community to design custom training programs for individual businesses and organizations. In addition, faculty members work on various projects with people in the community. For example, marketing professor Jack Schibrowsky has worked with city officials in North Las Vegas. LENDING AN EAR In his role as de facto father confessor for much of the local business community, Jarley has listened to all manner of problems, complaints and fears during his tenure as dean. What tops the list? "I think it's uncertainty," he says. "Washington has created a lot of uncertainty about what the rules are going to look like going forward — what tax rates are going to look like, what incentives there are going to be for investment." Topping clients' wish lists, he says, are help in developing business plans and training people in management decision making, which has become more data-driven. The school has also had an increase in requests for assistance from nonprofit organizations, Jarley notes, "to help them become more efficient and have better management practices during this time of 18 really high need that they've had." "Obviously demand for their services is up, and they're looking for ways they can meet those demands," he said. For example, a number of students have worked with Three Square, Southern Nevada's largest food bank, and St. Jude's Ranch in Boulder City, which rescues abused, abandoned and neglected children. SUCCESS STORIES The college's outreach efforts are paying dividends. • One of Oliver Garner's two companies, the Garner Group, develops products all the way from the idea stage through patents to retail shelves in places like Walmart. Garner, who also owns and operates the Music Exchange, is working on a cooling system he hopes will, among other things, make life more pleasant for American troops stationed in the Middle East. Since 2009, UNLV has been helping him develop and design the cooler. "We're developing the system for the military," Garner said. "I was talking to a young man who'd just returned from Iraq. It was extremely hot there, and he was drinking a 90-degree beer. So with our system he can just take that beer, put it into our device and within one minute it's ice cold. It's not a blast freezer, but it chills rapidly." The prototype is housed at UNLV. Garner is hard at work downsizing it. "We've gotten a lot of help from the business school in terms of developing the business plans and the initial draft of the cooling system," he said. • Anthony Alegrete, a senior marketing major at UNLV, has launched a nonprofit organization, the Jump for Joy Foundation, to create health and exercise clinics for kids. High-profile athletes from UFC and elsewhere lend their faces to help motivate kids to exercise. His for-profit group, called 18at18, provides e-books (99 cents each through a mobile app) to help young adults "achieve financial and physical health at age 18," according to the school. The business plan for 18at18 — which is projected to generate revenue of $2 to $3 million during its first five years — took top honors at the Governor's Cup, a state business plan competition sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation this year. The $20,000 prize paid for trademarks and copyrights. • Kevin Hwang was simply too busy to turn his ideas into workable business opportunities until, attracted to the UNLV College of Business' entrepreneurship programs, he returned to school for his MBA, graduating last year. One of his ideas, now brought to fruition, is an interactive kiosk — customers receive coupons for watching 30-second videos — that helps restaurant vendors boost sales. His company is called iAD Media. He credits the extensive networking with other entrepreneurs and executives at the school with helping ensure his success. NOT GOING ANYWHERE Despite the lingering economic malaise and a resulting drop in business startups, Jarley says venture capitalists in town still have their eyes open for opportunities. And UNLV will be there to assist them. "One of the things we can do is help link people with ideas to all sorts of folks," he said. "The business school "is actively engaged in the community, and trying to do what we can to promote business and economic diversification here in the valley." | 12 DECEMBER 2011 |