Together Again

Aisa Aiyer, MBA ’05, and Alex Charters Zubko, MBA ’05, live 20 minutes from each other in Connecticut. Recently, as they were both nearing 50, changing jobs, and approaching their 20th Stanford Graduate School of Business reunion, they were “doing a lot of introspection and reflection on big questions,” Aiyer remembers. “This all coalesced into us saying, we can’t be the only people thinking through this, and we stumbled upon this idea to start talking to our classmates.”

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CarolAnn Shindelar, center, MBA ’87 with the other members of her alumni women’s group in 2018 (bottom) and at their GSB graduation in ’87 (top) | Courtesy of CarolAnn Shindelar

Thus, 50 Cups of Coffee was born. A private podcast for the Class of 2005, Aiyer and Zubko interview their classmates about what led them to Stanford GSB and what life has thrown their way since graduation. “We set out to do 10 conversations, and it snowballed into an outpouring of thoughts, ideas, people really seeking connection with each other,” Zubko says. “The show of love has been astounding.” They’ve already done 50 interviews, and ultimately, hope to capture all 350 classmates on tape.

The podcast is representative of the many ways Stanford GSB classes and communities not only remain in touch after graduation, but often establish deeper and more meaningful bonds as the years pass.

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The long-running alumni gathering hosted by Andrew Moley, MBA ’91, and Cathy Crane Moley, MBA ’92, shown at their first get-together in 1991 (top) and at their 35th annual gathering this past January (bottom) | Courtesy of Andrew Moley and Cathy Crane Moley

“I think all of us would say this group has cemented one of the most important relationships in our lives: our relationship with each other,” says CarolAnn Shindelar, MBA ’87. She and seven other women met through a weekly facilitated women’s group while at the GSB, and have continued meeting for an annual three-day gathering ever since graduating.

Another informal alumni group is similarly long-lived. Having started over a long weekend in Carmel, California, a few months before graduation, an event by hosts Andrew Moley, MBA ’91, and Cathy Crane Moley, MBA ’92 — who met that first weekend and are now married — has continued for another group of classmates ever since. The clan has expanded to include spouses, children, and grandchildren. “We lived these amazing years at business school, and for 35 years since, we’ve been able to be together to reconnect,” Andrew says.

The Class of ’68, however, is in another league with its steadfast alumni commitment over the years. Younger than any previous incoming class — many of them 22 or 23 years old upon matriculation — the students viewed Stanford GSB as almost an extension of college, marked by parties, touch football games, and shared ski houses. The close bonds they built during that time naturally extended past MBA graduation, when classmates decided to meet annually. The so-named Stanco, in which members each gave $100 for annual gatherings, “was an ‘investment fund’ whose earnings were dedicated to covering the bar tab,” says class secretary Bob Williamson, MBA ’68, of the group’s inception.

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Egalitarian, fun-loving, and with a continued commitment to each other and to Stanford GSB, members of the Class of 1968 are shown here at their annual gathering in Aspen, Colorado, in 2019. | Courtesy of Bob Williamson

Stanco members still keep in touch through mailing lists and continued annual gatherings. There’s also a spirit of philanthropy that has united the group, as well as a shared sense of support to the business school and to future leaders, with gifts to Stanford GSB in the name of the class for an endowed professorship, a building at the Knight Management Center, and a fellowship fund. Yet the group itself remains intentionally egalitarian, explains Williamson;. “There are no divisions based on wealth or social status. Stanco is over half the class, and membership is a white ball system. All you have to do is ask to be with us.”

“The reason we stayed together was simple,” he says. “We like one another and look forward to seeing each other.”

Dan Matthies and Babu Sivadasan, both SEP ’19, are founding partners of Reaction, a global venture fund that has brought classmates together to help solve large-scale challenges. Recognizing that Stanford Executive Program alumni possessed a sweeping range of expertise and geographic reach, Reaction formed partnerships on issues like climate change and healthcare.

Babu Sivadasan, left, SEP ’19, brings together Stanford Executive Program alumni through Reaction, a global venture fund | Courtesy of Babu Sivadasan

Roughly 250 leaders, spanning six continents and including SEP alumni from 2010–2024, have participated in the fund. “All of us had this shared feeling that by building something together, it would be exponential compared to what anyone could do on their own,” Matthies says. Their goal is to improve the lives of one billion people by the end of this decade.

The global span of GSB connections is highlighted with the 100 Dinners campaign, spearheaded by TJ Duane, MBA ’14, which convenes groups of 8–10 alumni to share meals in cities worldwide. The idea started in the lead-up to the GSB Centennial and then took on a life of its own. More than 135 dinners have already been hosted, and the number keeps growing.

“The dinner became a way to activate and connect a lot of alumni,” Duane says. “In New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Ukraine, Turkey, Colombia — all over the world, we’re hearing these stories about the powerful thread of the GSB, the way these meetings reveal we’re much more similar to each other than we are different.”