Fuqua focuses more on the business of energy

by Richard Bethune, MBA ’14 As Co-President of the Duke MBA Energy Club and a second-year MBA student with a passion for energy finance, I was thrilled to see two exciting developments occur this past summer. First, energy banker Ralph Eads donated $5.5 million to Duke, most of which will fund Duke Energy Initiative programs […]

New energy finance focus at Fuqua

Fuqua School of Business has already earned a reputation as one of the best places for MBAs to gain industry expertise in energy and environmental sectors.  In July, Fuqua extended its offerings with the approval of a new MBA Concentration in Energy Finance.  The new concentration, which is an addition to the school’s existing MBA […]

Duke student entrepreneurs solve energy challenges

by Dan Chow, MEM/MBA ’15 Dan Chow is a Duke graduate student pursuing dual Master’s degrees in Environmental Management and Business Administration. In this column, Dan shares his experiences pursuing environment-related entrepreneurial ventures at Duke. Ideation I first became interested in energy entrepreneurship while working on a geothermal-based start-up as an undergraduate at Middlebury College. […]

Assessing the microgrid market: Fuqua students get “out of the building”

by Nancy Fechnay, MEM/MBA ’14; Aaron Gress MBA ’14; Lisa Huber, MEM/MBA ’14, and Mark McDonald, MBA ’14 There is no substitute for the real world as a learning laboratory. For the second consecutive year, Duke’s Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE) partnered with ’05 Fuqua alumnus Paul Straub of Claremont Creek […]

Three stages in corporate sustainability strategy

by Daniel Chow, MEM/MBA ’14 At Duke, students are taught why companies across all industries are pursuing sustainability, what barriers exist for different businesses, and what tools are necessary for organizations to achieve their goals. Kristina Ronneberg (MEM ’14) explained a useful framework that she learned in Professor Dan Vermeer’s Sustainable Business Strategy class, which […]

Making sustainable development work in the Brazilian Amazon

by Dan Vermeer, Executive Director of EDGE The Amazon Forest is one of the planet’s true marvels – this vast territory is home to 1 in 10 of all the world’s known species.  It is also under incredible pressure, as the forest’s natural resources – including timber, oil and gas, gold, copper, tin, nickel, bauxite, manganese, […]

Learning energy basics

by Josh Seidenfeld, MEM/MBA ’15 Last week, EDGE co-sponsored one of the year’s most popular Duke student-organized events: Energy Industry Fundamentals. This two-day seminar featured sessions by Duke faculty and alumni playing leading roles in the today’s energy transformation.  The audience included students from business, environment, engineering, and public policy all eager to learn more […]

Duke places third at 2012 Renewable Energy Case Competition

On February 3rd, the team of Jake Thomsen ’13 (MPP/MBA), Johnny Fu ’13 (MBA), Kent Truckor ’13 (MEM/MBA), Rotimi Thomas ’13 (MEM/MBA), and Tim Dertzbaugh ’12 (MEM/MBA) placed third (out of 16 teams nationally) at the 2012 Renewable Energy Case Competition organized by the University of Michigan’s Ross Schoolof Business.  The competition featured a business case challenging the team to […]

Students participate in new Energy Industry Fundamentals workshop

On Sept. 1 and 2, 2011 more than 125 Duke graduate students joined the Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE) and the Duke MBA Energy Club for a workshop on Energy Industry Fundamentals (EIF) at Fuqua School of Business.  Participants—who included students from Fuqua’s Daytime MBA, Cross-Continent MBA, MEM/MBA, and MMS programs—received […]

HyTower Energy Storage takes top prize in Duke Start-Up Challenge

Congratulations to the $50,000 grand prize winners of the 11th Annual Duke Start-Up Challenge: Will Fadrhonc (MEM/MBA), Tripp Hyde (MEM/MEMP), and Matt Kaufmann (MEM/MBA)!. Their venture, HyTower Energy Storage, would convert out-of-service water towers into energy storage systems. The team was selected from a record 110 competitors. Read more in The Chronicle: “Energy storage project wins $50K grand […]