John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers addressing students during a recent View from the Top.
During his talk titled A Pitch for Deeper Green Thinking, Doerr said he doesn't believe the world's population will change its wasteful ways in time to stop global warming and urged Stanford MBA students to make this issue a priority.
"It was powerful to have Sports Business Management taught by both a leading academic expert, Professor Foster, and one of the world's most successful professional coaches, Bill Walsh. The interplay of expertise, analytics and wisdom, passion and presence, was tremendous for anyone interested in leadership or in the business of sports."
Chinezi Chijioke, MBA 2005
Arochukwu,
Nigeria
Associate, McKinsey & Company
- Many of the student sponsored speaker presentations are archived and available on the View from the Top website.
Visiting Leaders
The world's leading industry experts regularly visit the Stanford GSB, giving you the opportunity to gain real-world insight into management issues.
Tap the Best Minds
Faculty members often invite leading practitioners to help students test ideas against real-world experience. In many cases, these guests teach jointly with the professor:
- Entrepreneurship: Formation of New Ventures is taught by Professor Charles Holloway and John Morgridge, chairman of Cisco Systems.
- Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance is taught by Professor Jack McDonald and each year includes guest lecturers such as investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway, Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global Investors, Thomas Hicks of Hicks Muse, Richard Perry of Perry Capital Partners, George Roberts of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Tom Steyer of Farallon Capital Management.
- Leadership in the Entertainment Industry, developed by Professor Rod Kramer, is taught with Emmy-and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker William Guttentag.
- Sports Business Management, created by Professor George Foster, was jointly taught by legendary San Francisco 49ers football coach Bill Walsh (until he passed away in 2007), and included guest speakers such as retired quarterback Steve Young.
- Strategy Making in the Information Technology Industry is taught by Professor Robert Burgelman and Andy Grove, former CEO and chairman of Intel.
Student-Sponsored Speakers
Student groups also sponsor programs that bring global business and social sector leaders to campus for speaking engagements. Speaking formats range from small workshops to standing-room-only presentations.
Recent guest speakers include:
- Oscar Arias Sanchez, Recipient of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize
- Steve Ballmer, President & CEO, Microsoft
- Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO, Amazon.com
- Susan Bostrom, Senior Vice President, Cisco Systems
- Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator and U.S. presidential candidate
- Anne Cascells, Managing Director & Founder, Aetos Capital
- John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems
- Michael Crooke, CEO, Patagonia Inc. & Lost Arrow Corp.
- John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers
- Tim Draper, Managing Director & Founder, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- Donna Dubinsky, President & CEO, Handspring Founder,
- Lauren Dutton, Partner, New Schools Venture Fund
- Richard Galanti, Senior Vice President & CFO, Costco Wholesale
- David Geffen, Founder Asylum Records and Geffen Records, Co-founder, Dreamworks SKG
- Carlos Ghosn, CEO , Nissan and Renault
- Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence
- Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States
- Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman & CEO, General Electric
- Jeanne Jackson, CEO, Walmart.com
- Scott McNealy, Chairman, Sun Microsystems
- Dr. Hank McKinnell, Chairman, Pfizer
- Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
- Thomas Middelhoff, Chairman & CEO, Bertelsmann AG
- Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys Technologies
- Sudha Murty, Infosys Foundation
- Jorma Ollila, Chairman & CEO, Nokia
- Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi and Saatchi
- George P. Shultz, Former U.S. Secretary of State
- Pamela Thomas-Graham, CEO, CNBC (now Group President, Liz Claiborne)
- Nicholas de Torrente, U.S. Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders
- Rick Wagoner, President & CEO, General Motors
- Jack Welch, Retired CEO, General Electric
- Meg Whitman, CEO, eBay