Stanford Business School Salutes the Class of 2006

During the 81^st commencement of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dean Robert L. Joss acknowledged the record-breaking gift of the MBA Class of 2006.

Joss presided over the June 17 diploma ceremony that honored the 444 individuals awarded degrees this academic year. The Business School conferred 366 Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees, 1 of them a joint degree with Stanford’s School of Law and 17 of them joint degrees with Stanford’s School of Education. Seventeen students received doctorates, 7 received a Master of Arts in Business Research degree, and 54 graduates of the Stanford Sloan Master’s Program received the Master of Science in Management degree.

As of commencement day, an unprecedented 95 percent of the graduating MBA class raised about $477,000 and exceeded the previous year’s record class gift by nearly $70,000. Moreover, students from 42 different countries participated in the class gift.

Of the MBA graduates, 37 achieved distinction as Arjay Miller Scholars. Named in honor of the fourth dean of the Business School, Arjay Miller Scholars are ranked in the top 10 percent of their class by academic performance.

Joss took a moment to acknowledge the achievement of MBA graduate Christian Edvardsen, who last month was one of 10 students from throughout Stanford University honored with the annual James W. Lyons Award for service to the greater Stanford community. Edvardsen, who received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Georgetown University, was honored for his initiative in bringing MBA students and young professionals from around the world together to explore social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and environmentalism, and for his leadership and team-building skills that contributed to the success of the international Net Impact 2005 Conference.

Held last November, Net Impact “was the largest conference ever organized at the Stanford Business School,” said Joss. “There were 1,600 MBA students from all over the world in attendance. The planning, organizing, and delivery of this took over two years—before this group of students even came to Stanford. So it’s a remarkable demonstration of what I would call intergenerational student teamwork.”

Jaime Rodriguez was named the recipient of this year’s Ernest C. Arbuckle Award, which was presented by Susan, the youngest daughter of the School’s third dean. Rodriguez, who had returned to his native Spain and was not present to accept the award, was nominated and chosen by his peers as having exemplified “cooperation between students, social involvement, academic excellence, and fun,” said Arbuckle. Rodriguez, who earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain, was cited for his service to the School’s Academic Committee, Board Fellows Program, Stanford Management Internship Fund, and Global Management Immersion Experience summer internship program. He also created MBA Internationale, a nonprofit association of Spaniards who have earned MBAs abroad.

At the top of the class, Rick Wedell was named the Henry Ford II Scholar and presented with a check for $15,000. A native of Birmingham, Ala., Wedell earned his undergraduate degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University.

Finance faculty selected Robert Quandt to receive the Alexander A. Robichek Student Achievement Award in Finance, for excellence in coursework in the discipline. Quandt, who earned his undergraduate degree in economics and history from Yale University, hails from the Chicago area.

Special recognition was given to graduates who took on extra coursework to complete the certificate program in Global Management, created 12 years ago and dedicated to global issues and international business. Among the 86 recipients, 17 Sloan fellows received certificates.

In introducing the certificate program in Public Management, Professor James Van Horne cited some major initiatives and milestones this academic year: the Net Impact Conference in November; the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Stanford Management Internship Fund program, which “has reported over the years some 400 SMIF fellows serving about 250 nonprofit organizations,” according to Van Horne; and the launch of the Service Learning Program to encourage students to work with social entrepreneurs. “The Class of 2006 was so excited about this program that they pledged nearly $500,000 of their own money to increase the number of trips taken in the future,” said Van Horne.

Certificates of completion were awarded to 80 MBA and 11 Sloan graduates who passed the course of study in the Public Management Program, created under the leadership of Dean Emeritus Arjay Miller in 1971 to train leaders for the public sector.