Chewing on the idea of pursuing an MBA? Hear tales from the trenches — of both earning it and paying for it — in the stories and videos of our MBA Guide this week.
It’s all part of our monthlong spotlight on education, spurred by our denial of the fact that ‘back to school’ no longer includes us, no matter how many new markers and folders we buy.
Learn about ways schools are recruiting women and who they’re hiring to teach. Read about columnist Melissa Harris’ attempt to build a business that would take the New Venture Challenge by storm. Hear Gail MarksJarvis’ advice on what to consider if you need a loan for b-school. Scroll through this cool timeline of how the MBA got to where it is today. And contemplate where it might be tomorrow, including the online options that are already luring some students.
Motorola Mobility began slashing
More Top Picks How To Help An Autistic Child During A Meltdown
one-quarter of its workforce of 2,000 at the Merchandise Mart. Was this a sick burn or just a reality check from Fred Hoch ??“Motorola has gone through many machinations over the past 20 years. It isn’t as if this is the first time this has occurred,” Hoch said. “It’d be more surprising if one of the great stars of Chicago today lost 500 employees overnight.”
A co-founder of Opternative, maker of what it bills as “the world’s first online eye exam,” recently settled a lawsuit accusing him of selling optometry board test questions through a previous business, Meg Graham reported. Without admitting to any wrongdoing, Steven Lee agreed to pay at least $181,200, or up to $481,200 if Opternative continues to draw investment.
“Dr. Lee owns a significant amount of equity in Opternative,” said his attorney, Mark Bagley. “But that equity, the value, is not liquid right now, because as a practical matter, he can’t really sell his share or it would be at a ridiculous discount.”
Additionally, “a founder of a company should not be seen as bailing out in any way, and he doesn’t want to bail out. He has a lot of confidence in Opternative.”
Chicago venture collaborative TechNexus and the Department of Homeland Security are working together on an accelerator with some interesting prospects.
A first group of 13 companies are already at work on ideas for innovative gear for first responders, from gloves that allow wearers to wirelessly control devices to ways to sense the environment around them to a way to use GPS style functions indoors, Amina Elahi reports.
Among them: NuCurrent develops thin antennas and electronics that enable wireless recharging of devices and already has a relationship with giant Molex. And Intel-backed Rithmiocreated a gesture-recognition platform that powers products such as wearables, allowing a device to “learn” a person’s particular gestures.
Chicago Ideas announced its lineup for its October week of events. Executive director Jessica Malkin said it will tackle the issue of race “head on” with a discussion including Tanner Colby, co-host of the podcast “Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race,” and Deray McKesson, a civil rights activist and member of activist group We The Protestors.
Other headliners include Martha Stewart, Cynthia Rowley and USA Network founder Kay Koplovitz. David Gregory will lead “Politics: The State of the Union” with a panel including David Axelrod.
And my alma mater, Indiana University, announced it will launch an engineering program, a STEM initiative that trolls rival Purdue University at the same time. What better way to end the week?
Email: [email protected] * Twitter: @andreahanis