Pathway MBA helps engineers put their passions to work, researchers find ways to “hack” leisure, and International Business Week broadens horizons

April 2025

Can I recycle this? Pathway MBA alumna helps find the answers

Ava Wonn (MBA ’24) is the data product manager for Can I Recycle This? — a startup tracking waste and recycling for consumer brands. She earned her BS in environmental engineering and her MBA through Terry College’s Pathway MBA for UGA STEM students.

Smarter risks, larger rewards

Ted McMullan (MBA ’93) — who founded senior care and housing network Covington Investments LLC at 27 — returned to campus on March 24 to deliver the Institute for Leadership Advancement’s inaugural lecture in the Shoukry Leadership Speaker Series.

Longtime UGA supporter Sanford Orkin dies at 93

Sanford H. Orkin, former president of Orkin Pest Control and a decades-long supporter of the University of Georgia and the Terry College of Business, died March 4. He was 93.

A young woman reads and listens to a podcast

Leisure hacking

Are you reading that book for work or pleasure? Research from management professor Jessica Rodell finds employees who add professional enrichment into their leisure time can reap personal and professional benefits.

Students pose as a group in front of pyramids outside of Mexico City

Students spend spring break in the whirl of Mexico City

Terry College students learned how Mexico City’s legacy as a center for international trade affects its future as a hub for tech developers.

Collegiate Great Brands contest returns to UGA

BRCĒ, a slip-proof shoelaces company launched at Michigan State University, took home $15,000 at the University of Georgia Collegiate Great Brands Competition at Studio 225.

Campus to couture

Since its launch five years ago, contemporary clothing brand Cara Cara’s warm, sun-drenched prints have provided a source of light for shoppers. Co-founder Katie Hobbs’ (BBA ’01) eye for fashion helped the brand flourish.

Resilience and curiosity anchor international career

René Couttolenc (BBA ’11) credits resilience he developed early in his college career with a career that has taken him all over the world. Couttolenc, a senior director with Publicis Sapient, delivered the keynote for International Business Week 2025.

From the ground up

Growing up a young Dawgs fan in Jacksonville, Florida, Andrew Dill (BBA ’06, AB ’07) had no idea how tied his life would be to the University of Georgia — or the impact he would eventually have on his alma mater.

IN THE NEWS

The Georgia Ports support 12% of Georgia’s total state employment, according to the latest version of a report issued by the UGA Selig Center for Economic Growth. “Georgia’s deepwater ports support 609,197 full- and part-time jobs,” Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth, said in Metro Atlanta CEO. “This means that almost one job out of every eight is in some way dependent on the ports.” The Selig Center has tracked the impact of the Georgia Ports for more than a decade. This year’s report was based on numbers from fiscal year 2023.

Why would anyone own 54 life insurance policies? That was the question when incoming SEC Chair Paul Atkins disclosed his financial holdings in March. Jim Carson, head of the Department of Insurance, Legal Studies, and Real Estate, told Fortune he believed Atkins’ policies were likely purchased as investments. “It would make no sense for an individual to have 20, 30, 40, let alone 50, universal life policies on their own life,” Carson said. He believes Atkins purchased existing policies taken out by someone else and then sold for a lump sum. “This guy clearly likes to have a big pool of varied investments. And I think these are investments.”