Gudrun Granholm is the new capstone coordinator at the Oregon Executive MBA. Granholm will continue to serve as a capstone advisor and to teach financial accounting to the program's first-year students.
Capstone coordinator is a new position at the Oregon Executive MBA, the University of Oregon's Portland-based program for seasoned professionals who wish to pursue their MBAs while working full time. In her new role, Granholm will work closely with the program's other capstone advisors to promote excellence across all capstone projects, with the goal of ensuring a consistent, high-level student experience.
"With Gudrun's expert guidance, I know we can provide our students with capstone experiences that are even more meaningful and challenging," said Oregon Executive MBA Executive Director Julianna Sowash.
Capstone projects represent the crowning achievement of students" time in the Oregon Executive MBA. Second-year students synthesize everything they have learned in the program to develop, research, and analyze a real-world business opportunity for their organizations or for themselves.
Granholm's wide-ranging experience in business, academia, and entrepreneurship make her particularly well suited for this role. She is the CEO and founder of Box One, Inc., an organization that provides custom financial training for a broad range of companies and universities.
Prior to founding Box One, Granholm served in a variety of financial roles—from financial analyst and controller to CFO/CEO—during a 35-year period at myriad organizations, including The Washington Post Company, The Smithsonian, and Hanna Andersson.
Granholm's teaching and consulting background includes engagements with Fortune 500 organizations, universities, and professional associations. Over the years, she has delivered financial courses for numerous universities. Her clients for custom corporate financial courses include Cisco Systems, Costco, and Standard Insurance, among many others.
Granholm enjoys a longstanding involvement with the region's entrepreneurial community. Since 2014, she has been an active investor/member of the Oregon Venture Fund (the largest Oregon-based venture fund), including serving on the fund's investment committee. From 2008 to 2013, she was an investor in the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Angel Oregon fund, which helps entrepreneurs start up and scale up by connecting them to peers and mentors, funding opportunities, and hands-on training.
Granholm is a graduate of Harvard University and received her MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.