Cook Trust enables Fogelman College to sponsor the 2015 Oxford Analytica Global Horizons Conference in Oxford, England

Last week, representatives from the Fogelman College of Business and Economics (FCBE) travelled to Oxford, England for Oxford Analytica's 2015 Global Horizons Conference. This incredible opportunity was enabled by Michael Cook, chairman & CEO of SouthernSun Asset Management and founder of the Cook Trust. Furthermore, the Cook Trust generously funded Fogelman College's participation and sponsorship of the international event.

Among the FCBE group to attend the conference was Dr. Rajiv Grover, dean, Dr. Balaji Krishnan, professor and director of MBA Programs, Rebecca Koch, International MBA student, and Anna Michael, marketing manager.

Rebecca Koch, current FCBE International MBA student, attending one of the Oxford Analytica Global Horizons Conference sessions.

Oxford Analytica is a global analysis and advisory firm which draws on a worldwide network of experts to advise its clients on their strategy and performance. Their services include the Daily Brief which delivers global analysis that gives top corporate and government executives a proven edge in predicting the course of key trends and preparing for contingencies. Through daily dissection and analysis of fresh developments in global politics, macroeconomics and the political economy — guided by the latest academic research — the Daily Brief offers qualitative predictions and guidance as to the impact of events 'just over the horizon'.

Through the valued partnership between Oxford Analytica and the Cook Trust, Fogelman College is the only business school world-wide to have access to this instrumental tool. The Daily Brief insights are utilized by Fogelman classes to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the global environment in an academic setting. Additionally, the Cook Trust was responsible for the development of the state-of-the-art Cook Analytics and Trading Lab, which is equipped with Bloomberg terminals, that was unveiled at Fogelman College late last year.

"I am extremely grateful for our partnerships with the Cook Trust and Oxford Analytica. After years of espousing the importance of the role of trusted advisors, of rigorous methodologies for collection and analysis of data, and of actionable insights for the very survival of an organization, I am now heartened to see that this partnership will allow us inculcate these constructs, and at a global level at that, for Fogelman's sustainable competitive advantage," said Dean Rajiv Grover.

Throughout this conference, Fogelman College was highly represented among some of the top-level executives and experts of various industries across the globe. Thanks to the generosity of the Cook Trust, Fogelman College also received a two-page advertisement in the conference program which was distributed among all of the conference attendees.

Fogelman College's Advertisement in the 2015 Oxford Analytic Global Horizons Conference.

The Oxford Analytica Global Horizons Conference was an unprecedented and welcomed opportunity to share Fogelman's mission of training students for excellent-decision making – for which forward-looking, accurate and complete insights are essential.

Dean Grover also served as a moderator for one of the panels entitled, "Getting the Measure: Finding signals in a noisy world." His panelists included Michael Cook, founder, chairman & CEO of SouthernSun Asset Management; Tim Baker, global head of content strategy & innovation at Thomson Reuters; Lakshmi Shyam-Sunder, vice president and World Bank group chief risk officer; and, Philip Mudd, director of enterprise risk & advisor at SouthernSun Asset Management.

Some of the attendees and speakers included Jay Ireland, president & CEO of GE Africa, and George Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece and president of the Movement of Democratic Socialists, to name a few.