People

May, 2003

PHOTOGRAPH BY GERALD MERNA Tom Day briefs the press at a Post Office distribution center undergoing anthrax decontamination in December 2002.

Tom Day, Sloan '96

On Oct. 15, 2001, the day Sen. Tom Daschle's office received a letter contaminated with anthrax spores, Tom Day's duties with the U.S. Postal Service began traveling an unexpected route. A month earlier Day, Sloan '96 and a member of the Sloan Alumni Advisory Board, had been promoted to vice president of engineering for the USPS, a job that involves managing an annual acquisition budget of $1 billion and maintenance of postal technologies. Day had taken a course in biological weapons as a junior officer in the military, so he had some understanding of the challenges posed by the letter. He told his staff, "We're not going to find technology just to deal with anthrax; we need to be prepared for a broader range of biologic threat."

The first response was testing postal facilities for contamination. Twenty-three had some level of anthrax exposure; 19 were decontaminated within a few days and four sites with major exposure took longer. (Two remain closed at press time pending final clearance.) The Washington, D.C., Processing and Distribution Center, at 17.5 million cubic feet, is the largest biological decontamination ever undertaken.

The next few months were spent testing technology solutions, leading to a plan to modify mail distribution equipment with a combination of a near real-time detection system and a built-in vacuum and filtration system, using $587 million in funds appropriated by Congress. Fifteen sites were to be activated by the end of May. Deployment in all 282 of the nation's automated processing centers should begin this summer and take 12 to 15 months.

Day's vice presidency is normally a low-profile job, but he often found himself thrust in front of a bank of media cameras. He also communicated extensively with members of the House and Senate. He has a comfortable demeanor and is able to translate complex technological interventions into reassuring sound bites. "One of the things I learned at both West Point and Stanford was how to think through a problem on my feet," he said.

For months, the workdays were long, and even rare time off with his family was full of the unexpected. Like the time his son Billy picked up the phone, got a funny look on his face and said, "Dad, it's the White House."

LISA EUNSON

Alumni to Know

Faculty

Newsmakers

Mike Smith, MBA '86

Mike Smith never thought he'd be working in a skid-row office filled with donated furniture and a swarm of flies. "Not a chance," says Smith, the first paid executive director of the San Francisco-based AIDS Emergency Fund.

The flies are visiting because it's warm, and open windows provide the only air conditioning. But Smith, MBA '86, would never trade his Class B office in the Tenderloin for a corporate suite. "I'm doing the work I love," he says. "I'm running a small agency that does really, really good work."

Each year the AIDS Emergency Fund issues checks of $600 or less to more than 3,000 indigent Bay Area residents disabled by HIV and AIDS. Smith oversees a paid staff of three and countless volunteers and raises funds for the organization. He has his work cut out for him: Government contributions have fallen while the number of clients has risen—partly because people are living longer with HIV and AIDS.

Smith wants to increase the $600 limit. "That won't even cover a month's rent," he notes. He also hopes to collect donations from corporations and foundations. Historically, the fund has received most of its donations from gay men, but Smith plans to target all sectors of the community. "I need to diversify the Rolodex," he says.

When he entered the MBA Program in 1984, Smith anticipated a career in international marketing. But a life-changing experience propelled him into nonprofit work: Jeff Phillips, another MBA student, dropped out of school soon after classes began and died of AIDS-related causes during Smith's second year in the program. The two had become best friends after meeting at orientation.

"I didn't interview for any corporate jobs," Smith says, his voice softening as he recalls nursing Phillips through multiple bouts of meningitis and pneumonia. "I was really a wreck after Jeff died." After graduation, Smith traveled, then cofounded the NAMES Project Foundation. The organization displays the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a collection of quilt panels honoring those who have died in the epidemic. More recently, Smith ran the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of Colorado in Denver.

With his current salary at $90,000 a year, Smith notes that new MBA grads are earning more than he is. "But I'm doing work that's meaningful to me," he says. Besides, this is San Francisco; there aren't so many warm days when he has to share space with flies.

MANDY ERICKSON