"What other MBA offers seasoned entrepreneurs as teachers and mentors?" - Akshay Sabhikhi '04
Jeff Serra
Business success in theory is simple: sell widgets at a cost higher than the amount you spent to produce them. Jeff Serra understood this basic principle of business as a child, selling candy to fellow army brats when he was growing up on a base in Germany. As he grew up, though, Serra learned that the human impact on such a simple philosophy makes the real difference in business success and failure. With Warren Buffett as a board member when Serra was CEO of Phibro, he learned from one of the best. Now Serra is mentoring Acton scholars, investing in future entrepreneurs' success.
While an executive at a subsidiary of Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers, Serra helped build and manage Phibro Energy USA, Inc, one of the nation's largest and most profitable petroleum refining and marketing companies. He served as Phibro's Chairman and CEO from 1992 to 1997. Serra then formed Re-NEW Energy LLC in order to develop coal-based synthetic fuel facilities, which sold to two electric utility companies. Recently, he helped to found Eyes of Texas Partners LLC, an investment company focused on technology.
Then Jeff Serra read a newspaper article about Acton. He wanted to teach, and after a year of intensive training, he began imparting his business wisdom to Acton scholars. "Warren Buffett told me, When a terrible business meets a terrific manager, the business usually wins." Serra is committed to seeing that his students aren't victims of bad businesses, ones that don't sell enough widgets at the right cost. And once the business principles are down, his students can focus on the real challenges of meeting and interacting with the human side of business. "It's when a good business model, sound judgment about people, and an ethical entrepreneur come together that great things happen."
Jeff Serra believes so strongly in the future entrepreneurs he instructs that he donates his Acton salary back into his fellowship. He's proven that he can successfully invest in the widgets. Now he's investing in the harder, but ultimately more rewarding cause: the business leaders of the next generation.
