Dean H. Rao Unnava: Winter 2025 Big 3 Video

Dean H. Rao Unnava's Winter 2025 edition of the Big 3 features:

Poets&Quants Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership: Dean Unnava

"When H. Rao Unnava steps down as dean next June, he will leave behind one of the most consequential legacies in business education. He has transformed UC Davis from a quietly ambitious regional school into a nationally distinctive player." —Poets&Quants CEO John Byrne. Read more

Award-winning Marking and Communications Team

Our small but mighty MarCom team continues to punch above its weight, earning another CASE Award (19 to date), presenting at national conferences, and pushing the envelope of creative excellence. See how these storytellers elevate our brand. Read more

UC Davis Welcomes First Class of Undergraduate Business Majors

Demand was extraordinary—nearly 9,000 applications for just 150 seats. National attention followed quickly: Poets&Quants named UC Davis among the Top 10 Undergraduate Business Schools to Watch in 2025, citing the new major’s innovative design and our leadership. Read more

Video Transcript

• Awards, accolades and a big welcome to the first undergraduate business major class. 

Welcome to the Winter 2025 edition of the Big 3 Video Newsletter.

Poets&Quants Honors Dean H. Rao Unnava with Lifetime Achievement Award
Hello, I’m Professor Hemant Bhargava, and I have the privilege of talking about our Dean for the last 10 years, Rao Unnava.

Poets&Quants recently honored Rao with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership— just a year after naming him Dean of the Year. This award is a fitting recognition of his vision, humility and hard work, through which he has led the UC Davis Graduate School of Management over the past decade.

During this time, Rao has implemented several pioneering ideas which will leave lasting impact on the school and University. These include launching the school's Master of Science in Business Analytics program, creating and launching the University of California's first online MBA degree, and launching a new undergraduate business degree at UC Davis.

Before arriving at UC Davis, Rao had made a lasting impact at The Ohio State University, serving the Fisher College of Business for over 3 decades.

As he prepares to step down as dean next June, this award is a fitting capstone to a remarkable career. At UC Davis, Rao has been a dear colleague, and a steadfast champion for the Graduate School of Management. Congratulations, Rao.

Your influence will resonate here for years to come.

GSM MarCom Team Wins CASE “Best of District VII” Award
I’d now like to shine the light on a team that’s usually behind the camera instead of in front of it—our Marketing and Communications team.

Since 2004, this small but mighty group has grown to six and earned 19 CASE awards—gold, silver, bronze and “Best of” honors—from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. It’s an outstanding record for a relatively small business school competing against large, institution-wide marketing divisions across the West Coast. And yes—this very Big 3 video newsletter earned a CASE Gold Award as the top external-audience e-newsletter.

This year, the team earned another Best of CASE District VII Award for the “Our Vibe” long-form video showcasing GSM student life—an especially tough category in a competitive district.

Just as important, they generously share what they know. Team members have presented at CASE, AACSB, GMAC, the American Marketing Association, HigherEdWeb and Digital Collegium conferences, offering best practices in content marketing, digital strategy and marketing leadership.

Congratulations to our MarCom team. You make the GSM stand out—and the awards keep proving it.

UC Davis Debuts Undergraduate Business Major, Drawing Nearly 9,000 Applicants
Finally, this fall brought a milestone two decades in the making: we welcomed the inaugural class of our new undergraduate Business Major.

Demand was extraordinary—nearly 9,000 applications for just 150 seats, immediately making it the most competitive major at UC Davis. Students chose this program because they see its distinct value.

The major is led by the Graduate School of Management in partnership with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the College of Letters and Science, delivering a broad, analytical, interdisciplinary curriculum rooted in real-world problem-solving.

National attention followed quickly: Poets&Quants named UC Davis one of the Top 10 Undergraduate Business Schools to Watch in 2025, citing the major’s innovative design and GSM's leadership.

This first cohort marks the start of a new era for business education at UC Davis.

Thank you for watching this edition of the Big 3!