Spreadsheet Two
Friends in High Places
SINCE 1970, A GROUP OF high-ranking
business leaders has met several times a year as "informed and friendly
observers" of the Business School. Recommended by Dean Spence and appointed by
President Casper, the following 11 people, 10 of them alums, began three-year terms on the
Advisory Council in January: Robert J. Fisher, MBA '80; Leo J. Hindery Jr., MBA '71;
Sankey (Tony) Johnson, MBA '64; Dave F. Marquardt, MBA '79; Eff Martin, MBA '73; Sheila
Penrose, SEP '84; Robert G. Scott, MBA '70; John H. Scully, MBA '68; Thomas J. Tierney;
Marcus Wallenberg, SEP '93; and Thomas W. Tusher, MBA '65.
Crime Log
MEET THE ULTIMATE couch potato. Last
fall a burglar wielding a stolen electric drill broke into the automatic teller machine in
the upper Arbuckle Lounge. Police arrived before he removed the money, but when the
gentleman in question answered their knock and let them in, they assumed he was a
repairman. By the time the cops realized what had happened, the perp was long gone.
Two days later, the cops got their robber when they
responded to a call from the Business School complaining of a person sleeping in the TV
room off the lower lounge. Why would the criminal return to the scene of the crime? Why
not? Turns out he'd stolen the surveillance videotape from the ATM to see if he was a
featured player and he needed a place to play it. Enough to put anyone to sleep, we'd say.
Old School Thais
LAST SUMMER A HANDFUL of MBAs from
the classes of 1990 through 1998 met at a San Francisco steak house for a unique reunion.
Their only ties aside from their degrees: Each had done a summer internship at the same
Bangkok firm, and each year's interns were recruited by the previous year's.
Adam Green, MBA '90, was the first to go. Green had
traveled extensively in Asia by the time he got to the GSB and he wanted to test the area
as a future professional site. After researching job prospects, he wrote to Tara Siam, a
small consulting firm run by a Scots expat named John Johnstone. Somewhat to Green's
surprise, Johnstone was back with an offer a few weeks later. The pay was modest, but
housing would be thrown in--in Johnstone's luxury apartment on the Chao Phraya River near
the heart of the city.
Green accepted. Over the summer he investigated and
wrote a report for Tara Siam on the Thai securities industry. As much as he enjoyed the
experience, Green, who is now in San Francisco, realized that the expat life wasn't for
him. But he was convinced that the internship was well worth the effort and agreed to go
back to the GSB and recruit two MBA students for the following year.
Two by two they followed, commuting from Johnstone's
apartment building to his office via ferry, taxi, and three-wheeled motorized tuk-tuk:
Charles de Brabant and Paul Asel, '91; Ian Clarke and Lance Matthiesen, '92; Alison Deers
and Kevin Powell, '93; Tina Lin and Chad Creveling, '94; Jacob Gofman and Conrad Vlak,
'95; Ian Clark and Laura Matheson, '96; Rob Eleveld and Todd Smith, '97; and Lauren
Auerbach and Mina Song, Class of 1998.
Green is pleased but still a little surprised by the
results of his 1989 tailored job search. At the reunion, he says, "I looked down the
table and thought, 'Wow. One letter started this whole thing.'" This year the
internship be-came a victim of the Thai economy. Temporarily, we hope.
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| Illustration by Elwood H. Smith |
Sharing the Wealth
WELCOME TO A KINDER, more
compassionate Silicon Valley. In his 1997 study of corporate-community involvement, Senior
Lecturer Kirk Hanson,
MBA '71, found that philanthropic giving is up substantially in the largest firms since an
initial study in 1994. Noting increases in both corporate and employee donations, Hanson
and his team (which included Alison Davis, MBA '89) found that education, especially K-12,
is the most frequent beneficiary of Valley largesse; almost half of all gifts are products
or services; and nearly three-quarters of firms responding reported having organized
volunteer programs. Still, midsize companies (i.e., firms of 1,000 to 2,500 employees
worldwide) gave less than the national average and lagged behind both larger and smaller
Silicon Valley firms. Additionally, service on nonprofit boards dropped by 13 percent.
The study was sponsored by Community Foundation
Silicon Valley. Copies are available from the foundation (tel: 408-278-0270, fax:
408-278-0280, e-mail: inquiries@commfdn.org).
Complete results can be found on the Web at www.ccsurvey.com/survey/comsur.
Free Agents
AS JEFFREY PFEFFER, PhD '72,
was documenting the downside of downsizing in his new book, The Human Equation (see page
14), Susan Gould, MBA '77, remained upbeat. Acknowledging the pain and confusion brought
about by the ongoing shift from permanent to contingent workers, Gould says she
nevertheless believes that taking charge of your own career can be freeing. Gould, the
former director of the Public Management Program and currently a human resources
consultant, joined two other HR professionals, Kerry J. Weiner and Barbara R. Levin, to
write Free Agents: People and Organizations Creating a New Working Community (San
Francisco: Jossey- Bass Publishers), a guide for both employed and independent people.
The Good Guys
EACH YEAR THE STANFORD Associates,
the honor society of alumni and friends of the University, recognizes exceptional
volunteer service to the institution. At a ceremony in April, Stanford Associates awards
will be presented to GSB grads Douglas Minge Brown, MBA '61, and Larry O'Rourke, MBA '61,
and Gold Spike Awards to Bud Milligan, MBA '40, and Gregor Peterson, MBA '59. Both awards
are based on a long history of volunteer work for the University. Outstanding Achievement
Awards for special service during the previous year will go to Craig Falkenhagen, MBA '89,
Deborah Hall and Kevin Moore, both MBA '81, and Callie Stivers and Jack Herndon,
class-gift chairs of the MBA Class of 1997.
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