Santa Clara University

Business Today

• Bay Area Chocolate-Startup Entrepreneur Shares "The Business of Chocolate" Feb. 16

  Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 12:23 PM

  The co-owner of a startup company that is one of the few small-batch “bean-to-bar” chocolate manufacturers in the Bay Area, will be the featured speaker Thursday, Feb. 16 at Santa Clara University’s Food and Agribusiness Institute.

  San Jose resident Todd Masonis of Dandelion Chocolate will share his story of creating a chocolate business in a friend’s East Palo Alto garage, using cacao beans from Madagascar, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Colombia and Bolivia.

  The event is entitled “The Business of Chocolate,” and is part of a regular quarterly series on the business of various food industries, presented by the Food and Agribusiness Institute at SCU’s Leavey School of Business.

  It will take place Feb. 16 from 5 to 5:30 p.m. at Lucas Hall, Room 126, Santa Clara University campus, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053. Following the talk, there will be a tasting of Dandelion Chocolate products.

  Masonis and his business partner Cameron Ring  sold their previous startup, Internet address book Plaxo, to Comcast in 2008. They opened production of Dandelion Chocolate in 2010, and are moving later this year to a new factory and café in San Francisco’s Mission District. Their team travels regularly to cocoa plants where the pods are grown and harvested for cacao beans, in an effort to ensure that the farmers use fair practices.

  Their product is currently for sale in more than a dozen outlets in California, Oregon, New York, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia.

  The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University's Leavey School of Business.

  About the Santa Clara University School of Business
  The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University began in 1923, and was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. Its undergraduate business, MBA and Executive MBA programs are consistently ranked among the top in the nation by BusinessWeek, U.S. News, Princeton Review, and others. The curriculum at all levels emphasizes the leadership role of business in creating prosperity within an ethical framework, as well as business responsibilities for social justice and sustainability in the global marketplace. The School opened its $49 million building for undergraduate, graduate, and professional business education in Fall 2008. For more information, see www.scu.edu/business/

  Media Contact:
  Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Relations | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121
   

  
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• Evening MBA in nation's Top 20

  Monday, Nov. 14, 2011 1:53 PM

  The Evening MBA program at Santa Clara University is among the nation’s top 20 programs of its kind, reports Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine in its biennial survey of specialized MBA programs. The magazine ranked the SCU School of Business at #19 in the 2011 listing; in the magazine’s 2009 report, the program was ranked at #27.

  “We are delighted that the BusinessWeek survey shows our MBA programs are gaining national recognition,” said Leavey School of Business Dean S. Andrew Starbird. “Silicon Valley employers have long recognized the collaborative outlook, strategic thinking, and principled perspectives our business graduates bring to their enterprises.” 

  Earlier this year, BusinessWeek editors surveyed new alumni of accredited MBA programs who recently received their MBA from a part-time graduate business program. Graduates were questioned about academic quality, classroom facilities, and salary increases upon graduation; the editors also factored in average entry exam scores, tuition, and average class sizes in determining the rankings. The publication conducts an annual survey of full-time MBA programs; specialized programs such as the part-time MBA are assessed every other year. The rankings appear on the Bloomberg Businessweek website, www.businessweek.com/business-schools/

  Begun in 1959, the Evening MBA in the Leavey School of Business was among the first group of master’s of business administration programs to be accredited by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB-International). The Executive MBA program was launched in 1999. The business school also offers a fast-track-to-completion Accelerated MBA program and a M.S. in Information Systems, developing technical and managerial skills for senior IT leaders. About 850 part-time students currently study in the Evening MBA program, while another 100 students are enrolled in other business graduate degree programs offered by the school.

  
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