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The GSB and The Stanford Challenge

 
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Leading the Way :

A Young Alumnus Gives Back

Make a Gift NowRoy Gilbert started understanding how important alumni gifts are to the School even before he received his MBA degree in 2002. As co-chairman of his class gift committee, Gilbert got a clear picture of how much the GSB depends on its graduates whose donations create opportunities for succeeding generations of students.

"Raising money for the GSB opened my eyes to the financial model for the school,” says Gilbert, director of online sales and operations for Google India. "I know there were folks in my class who thought that since they weren’t receiving fellowships, their education wasn’t being subsidized. Everyone who attends the GSB does so with the help and generosity of previous classes, through annual giving and the endowment,” he says.

Annual gifts from alumni let the GSB remain innovative, such as pouring resources into launching a completely redesigned MBA curriculum in Fall 2007 – just 16 months after the faculty approved the concept. The curriculum features a more personalized, globally-integrated
approach to management education that emphasizes leadership development. It also requires that students spend some time working or studying in an unfamiliar part of the world—an innovation that has been made possible in large part through annual gifts from previous generations.

As a dedicated volunteer, Gilbert has served as co-chair of his fifth
reunion committee and, since 2004, as a member of the Business
School Fund Council.

In addition to his commitment to ongoing annual giving, Gilbert, a former lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, and his wife Leigh Anne, have endowed THE ROY AND LEIGH ANNE GILBERT FELLOWSHIP FUND at the School, which has a preference for supporting students who are former military junior officers. Says Gilbert, “My experiences at the GSB changed my life, and I want to be able to do the same for others.”