Patrice
Martin Johnson ’83
When Patrice Martin Johnson decided to go to California School of
Culinary Arts four years ago, she had only a vague idea of what the
experience would be like. “It was a lot more difficult than I thought
it was going to be. The curriculum is very structured, and there is
a lot of studying and homework. It was still fun, but I had underestimated
what hard work it was going to be.”
Johnson’s new book, Uncut: The Inside Story of Culinary School, portrays
the culinary school experience from the inside. When not writing the
book, Johnson was busy
building her own business as a personal chef and caterer, where her
business school background has proved to be an unexpected advantage.
Johnson has used her b-school knowledge to do her books, manage her
inventory and supply chain, and market her services.
“All of the classes that dealt with marketing, customer service and
personnel management have been phenomenally useful. And all the math
I hated has come into play—I have to purchase all the food and figure
out how to price my services so I can make a profit without being too
expensive,” she said.
While Johnson’s personal chef business comes mainly through word-of-mouth
advertising, her book has a more structured marketing plan, with talk
shows, radio shows and book signings in her future.
Johnson lives in Ridgecrest, CA, with her husband Rich.
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 When
Steve Dubin ’74 first got involved with Martek
Biosciences Corporation, nutrition was still considered a fringe
science and no one but scientists had ever heard of omega-3 fatty
acids. Martek makes products from microalgae, plant-like microorganisms,
which contain unique carbohydrates, fats and proteins. One of their
products is DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid which is important to cardiovascular
health and infant development.
Dubin became involved with Martek in his role as a venture capitalist.
“What originally drew me to the company back in the 1970s was the
people. I always invest in people, and Martek had five world-class
scientists who were able to clearly articulate their vision and
had patents for their work with this interesting new resource, microalgae.
At the time they didn’t have any products. We were investing in
a platform technology.”
Dubin has judged Smith’s full-time MBA Case Competition before,
and his experiences as an entrepreneur made him uniquely qualified
to judge the student presentations at January’s inaugural Part-Time
MBA Business Innovation Competition.
“Innovation comes in an evolutionary way or a revolutionary way,”
Dubin commented on the types of projects students proposed. “You
can look at things that are already out there and find new ways
to use them, or you can come up with something new. That road can
be a long one; it takes a long time to change the way people think.
Both ways work. It just depends on your appetite for risk and the
amount of patience you have,” he said.
Dubin originally imagined quite a different career path for himself.
“I thought I was going to be a tax attorney. After I graduated from
Maryland I planned to go to law school at George Washington University,
but the business school’s placement office set me up with a job
interview at the former Suburban Bank. I worked there during the
day and went to law school at night. During that time the bank formed
a venture capital subsidiary, in which I had the good fortune to
get involved in. I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and that’s
what I’ve done ever since.”
Dubin lives in Maryland with his wife Mim. They have three daughters,
the youngest of whom is now a senior at the Smith School.
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Passings |
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George William “Bill” Baude ’50,
of Heritage Harbour, MD, died of heart failure Dec. 11 at the age
of 81. During World War II he was a master sergeant in the Army
serving with the 1124th Combat Group in Central Europe and Germany.
He worked as a civilian for the Department of Defense, retiring
after 20 years.
James B. Taylor ’53 died of cancer in his Edgewater, Md.,
home at the age of 74. He served in the Air Force from 1953 to 1955
as a supply officer in New Mexico. After retiring in 1996 from the
Department of the Navy in Crystal City, VA, where he worked as budget
auditor for strategic systems programs, he worked as a substitute
teacher in Maryland for Anne Arundel County schools.
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Edward P. Webster ’69, a retired
financial systems manager for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.,
died of congestive heart failure and diabetes on November 17, 2004
at Northwest Hospital Center. The Columbia, MD, resident was 57.
Cheryl Jean Miller ’87, a naturalist, died at the age
of 49 from ovarian cancer on Dec. 9, 2004. She worked for the Anacostia
Watershed Society in 1996 and 1997 and spearheaded the Indian Creek
Reforestation Project, which returns native plants to the Anacostia
watershed. In 1994, she revitalized and supervised the bluebird
recovery project at the Agricultural Research Services Center in
Beltsville, MD.
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