UAB business school students were among thousands of students around the country studying the business world intently when it crumbled in September 2008.

Jon Stonehouse, CEO of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, spoke to UAB business students for the second year this fall as part of the School of Business course “A Conversation with CEOs.”

Several students, along with assistant professors Edward Friend III and Steve Yoder, were sitting in the office of Protective Life Corp. CEO Johnny Johns shortly after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt with losses of $365 billion to its bond insurers. Some $785 million of Lehman funds were erased, money-market investors suffered a massive loss and panic ensued. Regulators were meeting in New York to discuss the fate of American International Group, and Johns was the play-by-play announcer for the students.

“He was telling us what was going on and how it affected Protective Life and the entire market,” Friend says. “He said if AIG fails, here are the consequences. If it survives, here is what I think is going to happen.

“To be able to talk to executives living through the economic change as it happened and to see from their point of view what was happening to our economy and our world in real time was a tremendous experience — one students rarely have.”

The experience was made possible through the innovative business course “A Conversation with CEOs.” The course, offered each fall, is taught by Friend and Yoder and is for master of business administration students, honors students and other high-achieving students. Students learn the complexities of setting a strategy for businesses by engaging CEOs from Regions, HealthSouth, BioCryst, Energen, Hibbett Sporting Goods, Medical Properties Trust and other companies.

“The CEOs vary their presentations, but for the most part, they give the same presentations they give to analysts on Wall Street,” Friend says. “Sometimes they host us at their place of business. This year we went to Regions and visited with CEO Dowd Ritter and his senior staff, and they gave a reception for our students. We went to HealthSouth and visited with Jay Grinney, who is its CEO. We visited with Johnny Johns again. For many of our students, it was the first occasion they’ve had to be in a corporate headquarters, much less be around the CEO of a major corporation.”

The course meets once a week for three hours. Each student must complete an analysis of the week’s featured company prior to class. A team of students is selected to present an in-depth, 20-minute PowerPoint analysis of the featured company each week at the beginning of class. The visiting CEO typically will respond to the students’ work before a lengthy question-and-answer session.

Students say the experience is invaluable.

“The framework of the course is exceptional,” says senior Josh Carpenter, an accounting and economics major from Florence. “It requires each student to learn an entirely new industry each week so they can have intelligent discourse with a CEO. And you’re required to present an analysis of the company to the CEO and talk about how wonderful their company is and also outline the weaknesses within it. That takes courage, and I think it’s been an unforgettable experience for us to get in front of their respective CEO and do that.”

Jon Stonehouse, CEO of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, spoke to students for a second consecutive year this fall. He says he enjoys the interaction with the students and the opportunity to hear them critique his company.

“It’s a great new angle to hear their perspective; they really do their homework,” Stonehouse says. “I was extremely impressed by the amount of research and analysis they did and the fairly broad thinking they had about the current situation and where to go from there.”

A conversation with 20
Friend estimates 20 CEOs from publicly traded companies have spoken to UAB students since the inception of the course five years ago.

The course began after a conversation then-business school Dean Bob Holmes had with then-SouthTrust Bank President Julian Banton and Friend. “We were talking about how to capitalize on the resources we have here in this large, urban area for our students,” Friend says. “I had some thoughts about a leadership course I shared, and Julian told us about a guest lectureship program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Bob took those ideas and fashioned our course.” 

Students read and learn theories from texts written by Harvard Professor Michael Porter, who is considered the foremost authority on business strategy. They also read selected texts and receive instruction in legal research at Sterne Library. They discuss macroeconomics and learn to develop a market analysis.

The course always ends with an ethics presentation.

“We’ve had law enforcement professionals, former CEOs and business people who are convicted felons talk to our students about ethics, and it always turns into a fascinating session,” Friend says.

Community outreach
Stonehouse spoke to the students in November about BioCryst, a UAB-founded company with 79 employees in Alabama and North Carolina.

BioCryst was in the news this fall when the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency-use authorization for the company to ship 10,000 courses of treatment for the investigational anti-viral drug intravenous Peramivir. The drug is used in certain adult and pediatric patients with confirmed or suspected H1N1 influenza infection that are admitted to a hospital.

Stonehouse, who sits on the Health Sector Advisory Committee Board at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, says one of the things he hoped to impart to the students is the need to be involved in community endeavors, including speaking to students.

“I’ve been fortunate in my career to have had some great teachers teach me about business and the professional world,” Stonehouse says.

“I’m a life-long learner. Whatever little bit of knowledge I can pass on to someone else is very important. But I get a lot back from these students,” he says. “I think I enjoy it as much or maybe more than they do — the energy, the enthusiasm and the ideas they have. Sometimes when you get so focused on your business you forget about those who are in the early, early stages of their professional life. It’s great to see. It’s been energizing for me.”

Carpenter says Friend and Yoder also are role models for community servants.

Friend chairs the Community Foundation board, a public charity dedicated to connecting people and resources with community needs and opportunities to enhance lives. Yoder has held many civic leadership roles, and Carpenter has worked with him on several community projects.

“They really feel a duty to the community and see themselves as citizens who have responsibilities to give back,” Carpenter says. “And either implicitly or explicitly that message has been relayed to us resoundingly through the CEOs. If and when you do get to where they are in their careers, there is a whole lot more to do than just run a business.”

Stonehouse says the course provides a great opportunity for students to learn from their own professors and the visiting CEOs.

“Eddie Friend and Steve Yoder have done a great job of putting together a pretty interesting program,” Stonehouse says. “It’s very well taught and highly interactive. It’s just a tremendous learning opportunity for them.”

Visit the UAB School of Business online at www.uab.edu/business for more information on “A Conversation with CEOs.”