Stanford Business

FEBRUARY 2007


Alumni Acknowledged for Service to School

Four alumni who have mentored students, headed reunion committees, and served on the Business School Alumni Association Board and the School’s Advisory Council and Management Board were the recipients of the 2006 John Gardner Award for service to the Business School. They are Larry O’Rourke, MBA ’61; Cherrie Nanninga, MBA ’76; Martin Urrutia, MBA ’86; and Ellen Wood, MBA ’86.

O’Rourke set the tone for the event when he quoted John Gardner, the founder of Common Cause and the late faculty member for whom the award is named. “‘We don’t know what skills may be needed in years ahead. That is why we must train our young people in the fundamental fields of knowledge and equip them to understand and cope with change; why we must give the critical qualities of mind and durable qualities of character that will serve them in circumstances we cannot even now predict.’

“Isn’t this just as good a reason why Stanford and the GSB are now embarking on the Stanford Challenge, embarking on a new curriculum, and building a new campus?” O’Rourke said.

Urrutia, a resident of Mexico City, saw a mutual benefit for his country resulting from his volunteer work with the Business School helping to recruit students. “In the years I was here we had four to seven Mexican students. This year there are fourteen. This is an incredible intangible asset for my country in terms of the enterprises these people will create and the jobs and resources they will generate.”

Nanninga said she never saw her work as volunteering but rather as something she enjoyed and benefited from, and Wood agreed, adding she had two rules for volunteering: “When called, serve. And, do what you love.”