Spreadsheet
Trustees Greenlight New Campus
Dean Robert Joss, MBA ’67/PhD ’70, and Senior Associate Dean Dan Rudolph, MBA ’81, review plans for the Knight Management Center, the Business School’s new campus, represented here with a working model.
The Stanford Board of Trustees approved the design in June for the Knight Management Center, the new home for the Business School. Designed as eight small buildings, it will meet high standards of environmental sustainability as well as serve the needs of a more dynamic MBA curriculum and cross-campus collaboration. The 360,000-square-foot campus will be directly across Serra Mall from Schwab Residential Center and will be about one-third larger than the existing three-building campus.
Construction begins this fall on the underground parking structure, with occupancy slated to begin in late 2010.
For the Record: Class of 2008 Commencement
Degrees Granted
| MBA (Total) | MBA | MBA/ED | MBA/JD | PhD | MS (Sloan) | Master's in Business Research |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 374 | 347 | 23 | 4 | 22 | 46 | 3 |
Certificates
| Global Management | Public Management |
|---|---|
| 67 | 68 |
MBA Awards
Ernest C. Arbuckle Award | Henry Ford II Scholar | Alexander A. Robichek Award |
|---|---|---|
| Adam Anderson | Alan Resnikoff | Laura Nisonger |
| Contributed most to the fulfillment of the goals of Stanford Business School in and out of the School | Top scholar | Achievement in finance courses |
| 2008 Arjay Miller Scholars | |
|---|---|
Top 10 percent of the class | Andrew David Fishman |
She Did It By Numbers
At the Business School in the ’70s, 
Michelle Clayman met two of the great loves of her life: computers and modern financial theory. “And they, unlike some of my loves, have stayed with me,” the 1979 MBA joked with an audience gathered at New York’s Rainbow Room on April 2 to witness the School present her with its 2008 Excellence in Leadership Award.
Clayman is the founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of New Amsterdam Partners LLC, an institutional money management firm in New York that she launched in 1986.
A frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg, and other financial media, she sits on the boards of the Society of Quantitative Analysts and the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance. She is also a champion of women’s issues, having supported the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford.
Corporate Boards Seek More Women Directors
If you’re a woman in business, now is the chance to join the ranks of that most exclusive of clubs—the corporate board of directors.
“Board membership is a great mechanism to help alumnae boost their network, to remain involved in their field while temporarily out of the workforce or in retirement, or to give back to the community,” said Nicole Sermier, MBA ’05, who organized a panel discussion on the topic in New York in March.
The Women’s Initiative Network, an organization for Stanford students and alumnae, sponsored the event.
Global Outlook Needed for National Leaders
Sixty years ago, Henry Segerstrom, MBA ’48, and his classmates graduated into a world that hadn’t heard of credit cards, personal computers, or global supply chains.
“But the world has changed since then and is due to change more,” Segerstrom told members of the Business School community gathered to honor him as the 38th recipient of the Arbuckle Award, which recognizes alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to both management and society.
Waiter, There’s a Glacier in My Fettucini
Global warming is no laughing matter. Or is it?
Grist, a nonprofit, online site for environmental news and policy, has reached an audience of close to one million largely by injecting humor into an otherwise mirthless topic. Grist founder Chip Giller was among journalists who came to Stanford last winter to discuss how climate change can make more headlines. The event was organized partly by the Business School’s student-run Environmentally Sustainable Business Club and was partially funded by David and Heidi Welch, MBA ’90.
Frisco Kid Sticks to His Guns
As the California Supreme Court debated the constitutionality of a law banning same-sex marriage, the San Francisco mayor who famously ordered his city to provide marriage licenses to gay couples was talking to a Business School audience about the lack of leadership in politics.
“A lack of risk taking is the biggest problem in politics today. We like politicians who shake things up in the abstract, but when they really take action, people complain,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said during the March 4 View from the Top speech.
Most political leaders, he said, end up taking the easy route. “In politics, we can abdicate responsibility and play the blame game and still get elected,” he said.
Book on Business Life Explores Spouse’s Role
When last we wrote about Steve Miller, MBA ’68, on the 30th anniversary of his graduation from the Business School, the veteran of corporate turnarounds was in the process of handing off leadership of yet another salvaged corporation so he could resume his retirement building model railroads. As chairman of environmental services company Waste Management, he was expecting a celebration at the next annual meeting, but we learn from his new autobiography that instead Miller found himself among the startled and hushed observers who watched the new CEO enter the hotel ballroom in a wheelchair and incoherently deliver a one-page speech. It turned out that the savior Miller had found for Waste Management had an incurable brain tumor but would not admit it. Restatements of corporate profits followed, and Miller was forced to become temporary CEO.
Executive Desk for Four
Running an international company can be a no-frills experience, according to Carlos Brito, MBA ’89, CEO of Belgium-based InBev, the world’s second-largest brewer and the bidder in June for storied American brewer, Anheuser-Busch.
Other than an aggressive compensation system, InBev offers few of the usual trappings of corporate largess. Executives don’t get company cars, and they certainly don’t receive free beer, Brito said in a February speech sponsored by the School’s View from the Top and Global Speaker Series.
Start-Up Life Is Not for Everyone
As a young Business School graduate Stephen Ellis, MBA ’90, founded his own company. But it slowly dawned on him that his new entrepreneurial career wasn’t really inspiring him and that he would be happier in a more traditional corporate setting. He joined Bain & Company in 1993 and today is Bain’s worldwide managing director. But Ellis finds he still is asked: “What are you going to do next?”
“My simple response to that is: I think I have one of the best jobs in the world and I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than this for as long as my partners will have me in this role,” said Ellis during a View from the Top speech in January.
Mexico’s Fox Argues for Immigrants
Mexico is seldom cited in discussions of the world’s rising economic powers, but according to a recent forecast by Goldman Sachs it is expected to be the world’s fifth-largest economy by the year 2040.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who delivered the Robert G. Wesson Lecture in International Relations Theory and Practice in March, used that forecast to frame a far-reaching discussion on Mexico’s challenges—from fostering democracy and tapping individuals’ entrepreneurial instincts to broadening NAFTA and adopting a more sensible immigration policy with the United States.
Quotable
“Most likely it’s you and many other people who were responsible for the success that you have, so treat people well.”
Miriam Rivera, JD/MBA ’95, accepting the 2008 Jerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award in March. The former vice president and deputy general counsel of Google was elected a Stanford trustee a week after receiving the award.
Strike That MBA for a WGA
Henry Huang, MBA ’91, went to Hollywood as a “creative suit,” an entry-level development executive for a major studio. “I didn’t know it, butI guess I was more creative than suit,” he says, and a few years later he started writing scripts for television and film. “This was never a career I had considered or something I thought I was remotely qualified for,” he says. When the Writers Guild struck last November, Huang went on the picket line for two months. Now, contract in hand, Huang is back at work. Latest project: a high-school cheerleading movie. “I know nothing about cheerleading,” he insists cheerfully.
New Ventures
Alums Build Academy for African Leadership
Four years in the making, the African Leadership Academy welcomes its first class of promising young students next month. The nonprofit boarding school, cofounded by Fred Swaniker, MBA ’04, and Chris Bradford, MBA ’05, is located outside Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Academy recruited students ages 15 to 19 from across the continent and selected them on the basis of merit alone; about 80 percent of this year’s students will receive financial aid. Building a curriculum, an international faculty, and a $5 million campus was only step one in the academy’s mission “to transform Africa into a peaceful and prosperous continent by developing and supporting its future leaders.”
Online Microfinance
A few months working at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh was enough to convince Tracey Pettengill Turner, MBA ’98, that microfinance is an effective aid in the battle against poverty.
In 2007, Turner launched MicroPlace, which, like Grameen, combines capitalism with charity. At microplace.com lenders invest in microfinance organizations that fund entre-preneurs in developing countries. Loans return up to 3 percent interest per year. MicroPlace is a subsidiary of eBay; Turner is its CEO.
Turning Trash to Gas
Two-year-old alternative-fuel startup Coskata came out of stealth mode in January when it announced a partnership with General Motors. At the cost of about $1 a gallon, Coskata converts carbon-rich materials—anything from old rubber tires to agricultural waste—into ethanol. The agreement with GM was initiated and developed by Coskata CMO and VP of Business Development Wes Bolsen, MBA ’04, one of the company’s first hires. Coskata expects its fuel to generate 7.7 times the energy it takes to produce it and greatly reduce CO2 emissions, as compared to traditional fuels.
Search and Destroy
Fans of the TV series The X-Files know “The Truth Is Out There.” But those who’ve been burned on the internet know there’s a lot more than truth floating around the web. Enter Reputation Defender, cofounded by Owen Tripp, MBA ’08. For a small monthly fee, the company searches the web for information about you or your child. If you don’t like what you see, Reputation Defender will do its darndest to persuade the website owner to destroy the offending items.
Trunkful of Trousers
Bonobos, the company founded by Brian Spaly (at right) and Andy Dunn (at left) , both MBA ’07, offers pants to the young at heart and “athletic” of build. As student housemates, the two sold Spaly-designed trousers out of Dunn’s trunk in the parking lot behind Littlefield. Now the company, with Dunn as CEO and Spaly as designer, makes its sales online at bonobos.com. “It was an idea that had some legs,” Spaly told Vanity Fair Online. The company’s name-sake is a primate known for its promiscuity.