Spreadsheet One
*Profs Go to the Mat Not for Profit
*The GSB's Living Treasure
*Berlin Site of SEP 50th Celebration
*Hoop Dreams

Spreadsheet Two

ILLUSTRATION BY LEO ESPINOSA

Lamaze for Nascent Foundations

STARTING A FOUNDATION to have an impact on the world around you can be an exciting but also a frustrating experience, say some who have been there. In an economic downturn, it is especially hard to spend time and money just to get a foundation up and running, says Cate Muther, MBA ’78, founder of one and chairwoman of a new foundation for foundations.

The Foundation Incubator, funded by 21 organizations ranging from the well-known Rockefeller Foundation to new family-run organizations, is a place where the youngest get mentoring from more established foundations. They also share services and facilities that would be more expensive to provide on their own.

Given the GSB’s longstanding Public Management Program, it is not surprising that Business School alums were heavily involved in creating this innovation. Besides Muther, other founding investors include Community Foundation Silicon Valley, where Peter Hero, MBA ’66, is president, and the Morgan Family Foundation, where Rebecca Morgan, MBA ’78, is secretary. Michael Chertok, MBA ’92, is managing director of one of the first four organizations in residence—the Global Catalyst Foundation. Incubator program director Leticia Miranda is a member of the Class of 1993, and staff member Isobel Gotto received her MBA from the GSB last spring.

The incubator, located at 1804 Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto, is open to private, family, operating, and corporate foundations, both large and small, with a wide range of funding interests. See www.foundationincubator.org for more information.

Littlefield’s Legacy

RECENT GRADUATES will associate the name of Edmund Wattis Littlefield with the Littlefield building that houses faculty offices, classrooms, and the stately wood-paneled Wattis conference room. The building, with its distinctive center arch, is just one of many gifts that Ed Littlefield, MBA ’38, gave the Business School and Stanford University before his death from lung cancer in October at the age of 87.

A prominent San Francisco business executive who led Utah International—a natural resources and shipping company that in 1976 merged with General Electric—Littlefield “was incisive at getting to the heart of business issues,” said Dean Robert Joss. Former Dean Arjay Miller concurred: “I once told a Business School leadership class that I thought Ed Littlefield was the most outstanding corporate executive I knew. He had a vision to change the very nature of [Utah Construction] from one field—construction, which was low profitability—to mining uranium and coal, which was more profitable.”

Littlefield also was generous with his time, serving on the Stanford Board of Trustees from 1956 until 1969, on the GSB Advisory Council from 1959 until 1984, and on the Hoover Institution Board of Overseers from 1990 to 1994. In 1970, he received the Ernest C. Arbuckle Award, awarded annually by the GSB’s alumni association to an outstanding alumnus/a. He endowed a Business School professorship in 1973 and in 1988 contributed the name gift to construct the Edmund W. Littlefield Management Center.

Ad Executive Chairs Alumni Board

BETSY SPENCE, MBA ’86, became president of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association board of directors in January, succeeding classmate Martin Urrutia. Spence, who moved to New York City in September, served as president of the Denver SBSAA chapter for two years and has served on the alumni association board of directors for five years. She works for Merkley Newman Harty, an advertising agency whose clients include BellSouth, Mercedes Benz, Citigroup, and BMW Motorcycles. Previously, she was director of account services for a Denver advertising agency and before that, a senior vice president and director of marketing at Norwest Bank.

Silver Apple Winner Credits Alums

A PERSON WHO TRIES to carry a cat by the tail learns 10 times as much as the person watching, said Mark Twain. According to the faculty member who won this year’s Jaedicke Silver Apple Award, GSB alumni/ae carry the cats and their professors watch and then write books about what they see.

Charles O’Reilly III, the Frank E. Buck Professor of Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, was honored during October’s Alumni Weekend for his service to the School’s alumni, including the many lectures he has given at alumni events since joining the faculty in 1993. O’Reilly is known for solid research and plain talk, one reason his latest book, Hidden Value (coauthored with GSB Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer), was named one of the top five business books of the past two years by strategy+business, a magazine published by Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc.

O’Reilly shared the credit for his work with “energizing students” and with alums who provide faculty with interesting conversations, access to their organizations for research, and “half their salaries.” Recently, he has been tapping the GSB network for material for his next book—on what he calls ambidextrous companies.

The award, presented by the School’s alumni association and named for Dean Emeritus Robert K. Jaedicke, was created to recognize faculty members for significant involvement in alumni programs.