Spreadsheet Three

GSB Does Swimmingly, Grabs Golden Briefcase

Illustration by Sarah Wilkins

ANYONE WHO'S TAKEN PART in Challenge for Charity weekend over the past dozen years knows about UCLA. Each year an army of husky Southern Californians descends on Stanford for the athletic contests that top off the six-month, six-business-school competition benefiting Special Olympics. By the end of the weekend, the fugitives from Baywatch have done just well enough in innertube water polo or Rollerblade hockey to eke out another all-around win for the Golden Briefcase, awarded to the school that comes in on top in the combined sports, fundraising, and volunteering competition.
       Until this year, that is. For the first time since 1986, the GSB squeaked through-- placing first in athletics and volunteering, and second in fundraising. To make the half-point difference over UCLA, Stanford MBA students donated 980 hours (four times last year's total) and raised $69,000 (twice as much money). The real winner was, of course, Special Olympics. Students from the six schools donated a total of $285,699 to the organization. The previous record is $209,000. Once corporate donations are tallied, the total should easily top $300,000.

PMP Goes Silver
COMMENCEMENT 1999 will mark 25 years since the first certificate in public management was awarded by the Business School, and the Public Management Program is planning a reunion and conference to commemorate the occasion. Plans will be finalized soon for the weekend of May 7 to 9, 1999. For more information check the December issue of this magazine or call 650-725-5399.

Arias Chalks Up a Win
ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS go to lavish parties after the ceremony and Super Bowl winners go to Disneyland. But Victor Arias, MBA '82, chose to join a bunch of students and alums at the Blue Chalk Cafe, a Palo Alto restaurant, bar, and pool hall (and, incidentally, the pilot establishment of Maurice Werdegar, MBA '92), after being presented the 1998 Jerry I. Porras Award for Latino Leadership. Named for the popular Latino professor, the Porras Award is presented by the GSB's Hispanic Business Students Association to honor an alum for community involvement coupled with business achievement.
       Arias, executive vice president and managing director of DHR International, the 10th largest search firm in the United States, cofounded the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, which assists Hispanic business graduates throughout their careers. He is a past president of the GSB's Alumni Association and the first Hispanic graduate of the School to serve on Stanford University's board of trustees, a position he has held since 1996. Arias is a member of the University of Dallas Board of Councillors and a trustee of the Union League Boys and Girls Club, as well as a past board member of the City of Chicago Advisory Panel and the Irving, Texas, Economic Development Foundation.
       It turns out that Arias is also something of a pool shark. At the Blue Chalk that night, he won eight consecutive matches.

PhD Grads Can Afford to Be Choosy

Photo by Alexander Stavroudis

Newly minted PhDs had good reason to smile. They had their choice of top jobs in academia.

THE GSB'S newest graduates enjoyed one of the most successful years in memory for career placement--and, no, we're not talking MBAs here.
       Of 25 recent PHD alums who returned a doctoral department survey, only two were still considering offers in June. Of the other 23, one took a position with a private firm, and many of the remaining 22--in this age of settling for adjunct and contract faculty billets--accepted tenure-track positions at some of the most distinguished institutions in the United States: Chicago, Duke, Michigan, MIT, Northwestern, NYU, Princeton, Rice, Roches-ter, and the university systems of California and New York.
       Still others are headed for the Hong Kong Institute of Science and Technology, INSEAD, and Melbourne Business School. The respondents entertained up to 10 job offers each and five of them accepted six-figure salaries for a nine-month year. Despite all the recent publicity about the sluggish job market for PHDs, the bad news simply hasn't held true for the GSB.

"It is the mark of a great leader that other people will say about working for you: 'We did it ourselves.'"

HERB ALLISON, MBA '71, president and COO of Merrill Lynch, offering his "View From the Top" in April.