Stanford GSB: Stanford Business August 2000

New E-Commerce Executive Program

SOME 50 SENIOR MANAGERS are expected on the Stanford campus in October for the School's first open-application executive program in e-commerce. The three-day workshop will draw on faculty and Silicon Valley experts to examine the impact of e-commerce on shaping markets, organizations, and supply chains.

"Stanford is at the center of this revolution. It's a great privilege to be in a position to share the knowledge created here with managers worldwide," said the program's faculty director, Haim Mendelson. "The program will bring together the people who made it happen with senior managers who want to take electronic business and commerce to the core of their businesses."

Details and an online application can be found at www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/.

WHEN THE MANAGERS OF one of Bulgaria's most popular Internet services need to contact the boss, they send email to a Stanford address. The company's chairman and founder, 31-year-old Victor Penev, is a member of the Class of 2001.

Penev launched Netinfo.bg in March 1999, and its integrated suite of three content, search, and communication sites (netinfo.bg, gyuvetch.bg, and abv.bg, respectively) has already made it the Eastern European country's second biggest Internet player.

Netinfo.bg has its own network of reporters, and it prides itself on beating newspapers and TV in delivering the latest news. It's also big on live chats with politicians and pop stars.

Departing for Stanford so early in his company's life was not an easy decision, Penev acknowledges. But he's taking advantage of his time in Silicon Valley to stay on top of industry developments and explore possible partnerships.

Penev whose first venture was trading in the gray market soon after the fall of communism in 1991-- decided to enter the Internet business while working for J.P. Morgan's high-tech media group in New York and London.

Penev admits that the idea to import successful portal and e-commerce concepts into the Bulgarian-language market was "fairly obvious." Bulgaria, with some 400,000 Internet connections, has a population of about 8.5 million. Another major market is the more than one million Bulgarians who live overseas. Penev notes his compatriots are crazy about soccer and politics, "in that order."

STANFORD UNIVERSITY presented the Gold Spike one of its top honors to Garen Staglin, MBA '68, at an April banquet. Staglin was honored for his many years of distinguished volunteer fundraising.

Staglin was one of the 1968 alums who founded Stanco, a social and investing club that, among other projects, endowed the professorship that bears the group's name. William Sharpe was the first Stanco 25 professor; Paul Romer holds the chair now.

Staglin was also instrumental in raising a record-setting $10 million as a reunion gift to commemorate the Class of 1968's 30th anniversary.

Three other Business School alumni received outstanding achievement awards for service to the University: Craig Falkenhagen, MBA '89; John Lillie, MBA '64; and Warren Lyons, MBA '72.

Spreadsheet Two