STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS —The MBA Class of 2009 will be remembered as the first graduates of the newly designed curriculum at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as the first class where every member contributed toward a School gift of more than $1.1 million in pledges and matching funds.

A total of 441 students received degrees under sunny skies at Frost Amphitheater on June 13, 2009, with nearly 3,000 family and friends there to cheer them on. Of the 354 who received Master of Business Administration degrees, 13 of those were joint degrees with the School of Education, 6 with the School of Law, and 5 with the School of Earth Sciences. An additional 66 received Master’s Degrees from the Sloan program, 17 received doctorates, and 4 received Master of Business research degrees.

“I join you in taking the next step, life after Stanford,” said Dean Robert L. Joss, who also is leaving the Graduate School of Business after his 10 years of service. “Make giving and community building an important part of your life and continue the great tradition you have already started with your record-shattering class gift to this institution, for which we are so deeply grateful.”

Joss asked for a moment of silence in memory of three MBA students killed in an automobile accident last October, one who would have graduated this year. He also thanked David Kreps, Theodore J. Kreps Professor of Economics for his service as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs during the past nine years.

“You have the gratitude of faculty and staff,” Kreps told the graduating class before MBA degrees were presented, “And you have an important place in GSB history.” He thanked the class for its involvement in the implementation of the School’s new curriculum.

Fellow students nominated and chose Jose Shabot Cherem as the winner of this year’s Ernest C. Arbuckle Award, which recognizes his contributions to the School and society through active participation, initiative, leadership, and personal integrity. Susan Arbuckle, youngest daughter of the School’s third dean, presented the award and cited student comments about Shabot Cherem, saying, “He had done a truly remarkable job of bringing people together.”

Willard “Billy” Butcher won two awards, one for graduating at the top of his class, the other for his achievement in his finance courses. The former, the Henry Ford II Scholar, recognizes academic achievement and grants Butcher with the Miller Scroll, a substantial cash award, and his name inscribed on a plaque currently displayed in the School’s South Building. The latter, the Alexander A. Robicheck Student Achievement Award in Finance, is given to an MBA student by the finance faculty and recognizes academic achievement in the field.

John Roberts, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Director of the Global Management Program, acknowledged 56 MBA and 25 Sloan Master’s program graduates who completed a series of courses to earn the Certificate of Global Management. The School’s Global Management program, created in 1994, aims to help students prepare for management careers in a global economy and to highlight the School’s emphasis on international business.

James Patell, the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management, recognized the accomplishments of 45 MBA and 19 Sloan Master’s recipients of the Certificate in Public Management. Created in 1971, the Public Management Program at first focused almost entirely on government, later broadening to also encompass nonprofit management and socially responsible business.

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, Dean Joss was thanked for his stewardship during the last 10 years, a period that saw an increased collaborative presence with other schools in the University, fundraising and groundbreaking of a new campus, planning and implementing a new curriculum, a dramatic renewal of faculty, and building out and/or creating centers in social innovation, global management, and leadership and development.

“Understanding is the highest form of knowledge, and deep understanding is your greatest advantage,” Joss told the students. “So get involved in doing–not talking about it, thinking about, or analyzing–but doing.”