For Immediate Release
Friday, April 13, 2007
College of Business at Colorado State Hires Director for New Master's Program in Global Enterprise
FORT COLLINS - Colorado State University's College of Business has named Carl Hammerdorfer as its first director for the new Master of Science in Business Administration degree in Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise. The program is designed to address the global challenges of poverty, environmental degradation and poor health.
Hammerdorfer received his MBA from Colorado State University in 2000. For the past five years, he has served as country director for the Peace Corps in Bulgaria.
"Carl brings significant experience and first-hand knowledge about some of the greatest challenges facing the globe," said Ajay Menon, dean of the College of Business. "His work with the Peace Corps will help students in our new master's program gain a deeper understanding of these problems and the complexities required to find solutions to them."
"My work in Bulgaria, a critical Balkan country, has confirmed my belief that, if you really want to generate lasting change, then you need work at the enterprise level," Hammerdorfer said. "Nothing is as sustainable as a company that makes and sells useful products or services, provides jobs, pays taxes and practices good citizenship."
Hammerdorfer has a strong history with the Peace Corps. From 1988-1990, he worked with Peace Corps in Mali, Africa, as a water resource management volunteer. In addition to digging wells, he wrote, performed and produced a professional record containing nine educational songs in the Bambara language that received national radio play in Mali for several years. He also fluently speaks German, French and Bulgarian.
Prior to his work in Bulgaria, Hammerdorfer worked as the CEO of MainStreet Cooperative Group, an innovative incubator for small entrepreneurial enterprises wishing to leverage the cooperative business model through group purchasing, marketing and shared best practices.
This spring, students can begin enrolling for Colorado State's 18-month master's degree that will teach students to use entrepreneurial, sustainable approaches to solve global challenges in energy, agriculture, health, environmental management and economic development.
GSSE students will take traditional master's level courses in marketing, finance, leadership and entrepreneurship, but all courses have been designed with deeper coverage of cross-cultural issues, non-profit perspectives and environmental and social policy implications.
"Colorado State University has a wonderful history of creating international enterprises," Menon said. "The roots of the Peace Corps started here in the 1950s. The Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise degree continues that tradition. We can provide students with the training to go into these parts of the world and create new enterprises. Imagine if we take that $1 a day that people earn and double that. You're suddenly dealing with a huge market opportunity."
For more information about the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise, go to www.csugsse.org
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