Stanford MBA Program

Here's an example of the impact GSB alumni have: 13 out of 42 members of the Stanford Board of Trustees are GSB graduates!

We know that not everyone can come and visit us here at Stanford so we organize info sessions in major cities around the globe. This year, we'll host almost 80 events in 36 nations:

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, UK, Ukraine, US, and Venezuela.

For the complete list and registration information, check http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/outreach/info_sessions.html

We hope to meet you there!
Ciao,
--Rita

Here's an interesting factoid:

According to my colleague Angie Wilcox, Asst Director of Student Life here at the GSB, there are over 500 extracurricular leadership opportunities at the GSB alone. This number does not include the wealth of opportunities available within the larger Stanford community!

More later,
--Rita

This year's conference is organized by a group of students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

The Stanford GSB is represented by Out4Biz co-presidents Corey Harris and Brian Theisen, both MBA Class of 2008.

The 10th annual Reaching Out LGBT MBA Conference will be held 11-14 October 2007 in San Francisco.
Ciao,
--Rita

Natalie Portman is passionate about alleviating poverty, and that passion was evident in her inaugural address here at Stanford which launched the GSB's Center for Social Innovations Social Innovators Speaker Series.

Portman (slideshow) told the story of a woman in Uganda who received a loan from FINCA International--a nonprofit that provides financial services to the poor. According to Portman, the woman had been living on less than $1 per day, raising 10 daughters. "She was begging her neighbors for their dirty laundry water so she could wash her kids' clothes," Portman said of the woman's life before she started her own business. More than 10 years ago, the woman opened a roadside food stand with a loan from FINCA and by 2004, when Portman met her, she had expanded her business to a restaurant that employed other local people. All of her children were in school, with one daughter even attending university. "Her entire life was changed," Portman said.

Portman said seeing the psychological change in the women who are served is one of the most rewarding aspects of her work. "It's not charity. It's just widening opportunity," she said.

Natalie, who appears in The Darjeeling Limited (it's on my list of movies to see) and who gave a stunning performance in Closer, has worked with FINCA over the past 4 years, traveling around the world and meeting with recipients of FINCA loans.

Thank you Natalie for your social activism!!

Ciao,
--Rita

I wanted to let you know the dates of our winter break:

The Stanford Graduate School of Business will close from 24 December 2007 through 1 January 2008.

We will try and answer emails during that time but it may take longer than one business day to get to your emails. We'll be back in the office 2 January 2008.

Best wishes,
--Rita

Happy New Year! I imagine many of you are busy putting the finishing touches on your application for Round 2.

With the deadline for Round 2 rapidly approaching (7 January 2008) I wanted to let you know that the quickest way to get your last minute questions answered is by calling us at + 1 650.723.2766 (we'll be back from Winter Break on Wednesday, 2 Jan 08).

Best wishes for the coming year,
--Rita

I'm very excited to announce a new fellowship opportunity made possible by the Mohammed bin Rasheed Fellows Program:

The fellowship--which will cover tuition, room and board, travel, and course-related fees--aims to support youth from across the Arab region who are interested in studying management, finance, or leadership at the graduate level. The fellowship stipulates that within 2 years of graduation, fellows are required to return to the Arab region to work for at least 2 years in the public or private sector.

Up to 5 fellowships will be awarded annually to candidates from the Arab region admitted to the Stanford MBA Program.

For complete information about eligibility and the application process, visit www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/financialaid/types_aid.html and www.mbrfoundation.ae

Ciao,
--Rita

This years' Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford University takes place from 22 to 29 February 2008.

The event is organized by the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network and was an enormous success in 2007, with standing room only at every event.

Almost all events are free and open to the public. For details visit http://eweek.stanford.edu

Ciao,
--Rita

We are excited to share with you that a group of first year Middle Eastern students have joined forces to establish the Middle East and North Africa Club (MENA) at the GSB.

Given the role the MENA region is playing in today's business environment, we felt the need to build bridges between the GSB and this region.

Accordingly, with the support of the GSB, we established MENA in January 2008 with the purpose of promoting the Middle East at the GSB through speakers and recruiting events, and promoting the GSB in the Middle East through admission and alumni events.

We welcome the Class of 2010 and the Middle Eastern admits in particular.

If you are a Middle Eastern admit or prospective student, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have regarding the GSB.

-- Marwan Bejjani, MBA Class of 2009
GSB Middle East and North Africa Club Leaders

Dean Bob Joss, speaking in Hong Kong last month, explained that senior managers of major organizations are the key to solving global problems including poverty, pollution, and infectious disease.

All these problems are so huge that they need to be addressed by large groups of people under the guidance of extraordinary and inspiring leaders.

Said Joss: "The selection [of employees], the development of team work, the giving of feedback, the growth of people are the hardest things to achieve because all people are different; it's not a technical problem to be solved. It takes a lot of emotional intelligence, and that's a hard thing for people to develop. It's much easier to develop technical and cognitive skills."

To boil it down to elevator pitch length: emotional intelligence (sometimes called EQ) combined with leadership skills will drive global innovation. The conundrum is that teaching leadership EQ is tough. Doing it well is the business school equivalent of scaling Everest.

Back when I was a student, the mainstay of our EQ training was Interpersonal Dynamics, the infamous but incredible course lovingly known as Touchy Feely. The teaching of leadership at the GSB has evolved since my day and now, in addition to the ever-popular Touchy Feely course, encompasses a multi-modal strategy that includes role-playing, interactive lectures, small group discussions, and coaching. Then there's the executive challenge, the event that brings together first year MBA students and notable alumni for a real-world exercise in managing the pricklier issues that confront CEOs every day.

Last night, I was watching the Leadership in Focus video vignettes that the Center for Leadership Development and Research (CLDR) has created to facilitate leadership training. The vignettes portray managers discussing topics such as implementing change, making good decisions, and building teams. Not all the managers chose the optimal alternatives or achieved success.

These video cases are not explicitly about leadership EQ, but EQ inevitably creeps in. As I watched these videos, I realized that I was reacting more to the interpersonal vibes emanating from the managers than to the content. Some of the managers were able to step outside their own perspectives and understand the issues, personal and professional, that others were facing. Others were unable to make that transition to the point of seeming downright callous. I found myself disagreeing with their choices and thinking: "glad that's not my boss." Their lack or inability to connect with and inspire their subordinates led to rifts that could not be easily mended.

Here at the Stanford GSB, our innovative leadership training challenges students to question their assumptions, to step outside the boxes they have constructed for themselves, to reach out to others, and to embrace a broader understanding of the world around them, both literally and figuratively. The two-year MBA program enables students to begin a process of self-examination and transformation that will allow them to become the kind of innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who will change the world. Part of our mission at Stanford.

For more information on the CLDR, see http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/cldr/

--JoAnne Goldberg

Ah...June. For most admissions officers, it is our favorite month of the year. After we post our final decisions, we get the same feeling you may have had the moment you finished your last final exam at university. We have a chance both to reflect on the amazing stories our candidates have shared and to celebrate the conclusion of our last round.

Within days of our decision deadline, though, we quickly shift our attention to our next goal--that of producing a new application. Usually, you would see us huddled in conference rooms in marathon meetings throwing around potential new essay and recommendation questions to see which ones might stick.

It is with great pleasure that I announce our new 2008/2009 essay questions are posted at http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/essays.html

But is with even greater pleasure that I tell you it has been our easiest June ever!

This year's essay and recommendation questions are really the result of a journey that began over three years ago. Derrick Bolton, the Director of MBA Admissions, and I worked with experts in the field of leadership assessment from all over the world. We wanted to develop a set of questions that would stand the test of time--that would effectively elicit only the information most critical to our assessment criteria.

The 2008/2009 questions have changed little from last year; based on our satisfaction with the thousands of essay responses we read last year, we only made slight refinements.

Let me summarize why each of them is meaningful to our committee:

Essay A: What matters most to you and why?
This question helps us learn about your ideals and values. They set the context for how you see the world. They are your guideposts when you make any decision from what type of job you pursue to what type of culture you will create in leading an organization.

Essay B: What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them?
This question helps us understand your professional dreams and from where your passion comes to achieve them. We also get a glimpse of what skills or knowledge you think you need to develop to reach them.

Essay C: Please answer two of the questions listed below.
1. Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team.
2. Tell us about a time when you felt most effective as a leader.
3. Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating.
4. Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected.

We all have important stories to tell. We want to share moments when we have achieved great things or helped to shape the world around us. Essay C lists four potential questions (or prompts) to help you identify which are the two most important stories you have to tell us. The prompts themselves are not as important as the stories that they bring to the surface.

Good luck completing your application this year. I hope my "confessions" have given you a little more insight into the journey you are about to begin.

Kirsten Moss
Director of Evaluation
Stanford Graduate School of Business

Many of you have shared your concerns about the economy and its possible impact on securing student loans. As you may have read, Citibank announced that it is suspending private loans for international students.

I asked my colleague Jack Edwards, Director of Financial Aid at the GSB, to help clarify the impact of this announcement.

His words: "International students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business will not be impacted by Citibank’s decision. The GSB Financial Aid Office has a close working relationship with Stanford Federal Credit Union and for the past two years we have made arrangements exclusively through SFCU to provide international students at Stanford the ability to take out private loans without a US co-signer."

"Citibank maintains its loan program for domestic borrowers."

Please contact our admission counselors if you have further questions.

Next up, will the economy impact my ability to get a job after I graduate?

Ciao,
--Rita

First, let me congratulate all of you who submitted your applications by the Round 1 deadline yesterday. We are looking forward to getting to know you via your essays, letters of recommendation, and all the other information you are sharing with us.

Today, I wanted to address your questions about how the contracting economy might affect your job prospects. I was able to discuss this issue with Andy Chan (MBA 1988), Assistant Dean and Director of the MBA Career Management Center:

Rita Winkler: Given the economic downturn, how does this affect the job prospects for applicants considering business school?

Andy Chan: Applicants must make their decisions about applying to business school separate from what's going on in the economy. Why? Because the economy is unpredictable and no one knows what the market will be like in two to three years. It could be better or worse. We all hope it will be better!

Rita Winkler: What does the Career Management Center (CMC) do to help students find jobs when the economy is weak?

Andy Chan: The CMC has developed relationships with many organizations that enjoy hiring Stanford students. However, in times like these, even some of those organizations may not be hiring.

One of our key goals is to teach and guide students to become strategic career managers so that they are equipped to manage their job search while at business school and throughout their careers when they are alumni.

We deliver numerous workshops and job search programming to help students successfully find opportunities, especially at smaller organizations. This is important for a couple of reasons: First, smaller firms are more likely to be hiring even in a down economy. Second, smaller organizations are also more able to create a job for a great candidate like one of our students.

In addition, the CMC helps students tap into the supportive and responsive GSB alumni community. In the last downturn, the CMC asked alumni to create projects and jobs and the alumni responded positively. This is possible at Stanford because so many of our alumni are top executives at their organizations.

Rita Winkler: In what other ways do Stanford alumni help students?

Andy Chan: Alumni are especially valuable in educating students about a wide range of careers and organizations. In addition, they are mentors, business advisors, and networking contacts.

Many alumni are angel investors or institutional investors who fund student-developed businesses. There may be a misperception among some applicants that this is a Bay Area phenomenon. Our alumni are even more responsive in regions far from California. If you contact an alum in any location outside the San Francisco Bay Area, they will be very responsive because they love helping Stanford MBAs and hearing what's happening back at the GSB--one of their favorite places on the planet.

Rita Winkler: How does the career experience vary for first year students?

Andy Chan: Every year--including the post-dot.com recession years of 2002-2003--100% of the first-year students obtain a summer job. Organizations find it valuable and easy (and less of a commitment) to hire an MBA student for a summer job or project. In addition, students tend to be more open to a variety of opportunities for summer jobs.

Rita Winkler: Do you help students who do not have jobs after graduation?

Andy Chan: Yes, the CMC continues to advise students after graduation. We also have a comprehensive set of resources offered by our Alumni Career Services team. We offer executive coaching and workshops at locations around the world. The online alumni job board has thousands of jobs posted each year. And the website has numerous tools, resources and articles to answer key questions from alumni regarding a post-MBA job search and overall career management.

Rita Winkler: What would you recommend to applicants with regard to their future job search?

Andy Chan: I would ask them to consider the following three things:

1) Clarify your personal purpose for getting an MBA. What are you hoping to achieve by getting the MBA? Understand if--and how--having an MBA will help you move towards the career you wish to pursue. There are some careers where an MBA is not required--and some where having an MBA is not desired.

2) Given the state of the economy, set realistic expectations for what you can achieve in the short term. What's your timeframe for reaching these goals (ideal vs. realistic vs. worst case)?

3) View the MBA as an asset with long-term value. I know so many alumni at the ages of 40, 45, 50 years old who reflect on their careers and appreciate how valuable and meaningful their MBA has been in influencing the direction of their careers and lives. Your investment has a payout over your lifetime, so be ready for a long, enjoyable ride.

Rita Winkler: Andy, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with our readers.

Andy Chan: You're very welcome. I look forward to working with the Class of 2011!

If you're interested in more detailed employment statistics, visit the CMC's employment reports.

Ciao,
--Rita

The Grameen Fellows program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business aims to support promising Bangladeshi students with financial need in obtaining an MBA at Stanford.

This fellowship program, made possible by a generous gift, allows Stanford to extend its outreach within Bangladesh to the best and brightest MBA candidates, regardless of their financial situation.

The program is dedicated to developing the next generation of leaders in Bangladesh who are committed to the country's human and socio-economic progress.

This generous fellowship will cover all financial costs related to tuition, living expenses, and application and examination fees associated wit the admissions process.

This is a one-time program with up to two Grameen Fellowships awarded.

Learn more about fellowship requirements and application details

Ciao,
--Rita

At the GSB, we define diversity in the broadest possible terms. Instead of limiting our focus to gender, nationality, ethnicity, industry experience, etc., Deans Bob Joss and Derrick Bolton encourage us--and you--to think of diversity as the breadth of perspectives you contribute.

One of the diversity initiatives I oversee is our annual "Many Voices: Perspectives on Diversity" conference which took place a couple of weeks ago.

The idea behind Many Voices is to give prospective students who believe that they will make a unique contribution to the diversity of the class a chance to visit, and to see for themselves that the GSB community is indeed made up of people who have many distinct and unique voices.

We had a great turnout with over 130 prospective students spending the day at the GSB, learning about student life, the admissions process, coursework, and life after the GSB.

The day started early in the morning, with a light breakfast and check-in. After welcoming the group, we had a rousing discussion about some of the things that make the Stanford MBA Program unique and also to demystify the admissions process.

Both first- and second-year students joined us for panel discussions about their experiences at the GSB. Dean Bob Joss spoke about the future of management education and introduced our keynote speaker, Elizabeth Davila, MBA '77.

Liz spoke of coming to the GSB as a young mother whose previous professional experience had been as a high school chemistry teacher in Ecuador, and shared her experience working in the medical devices industry after leaving the GSB.

One of the highlights of the Many Voices conference is to let participants experience the academic rigor at the GSB and to meet some of our renowned faculty. Divided into small study groups, prospective students discussed how to compensate the Director of Development at Australia's Circus Oz, McAfee's partnering options back in the early 1990s, and 7-Eleven's expansion in Japan.

The conference was rounded out by a presentation from the Career Management Center on how they help students find their true passions, and a panel of alumni who shared lively and often hilarious stories about their times as GSB students.

If you're interested in participating in our next "Many Voices: Perspectives on Diversity" conference, please follow these instructions.

Best wishes,

Eric Abrams
Director of Diversity Initiatives

The GSB's Center for Social Innovation recently announced the Social Innovation Fellowship Pilot Program which was created to support social entrepreneurs.

I wasn't sure whether this fellowship was intended for current MBA students or for MBA graduates so I visited my colleague Janet Abrams, Director of the Public Management Program to find out:

Rita Winkler: Can you describe what the Social Innovation Fellowship is?

Janet Abrams: The Social Innovation Fellowship is for graduating Stanford MBAs who have a well-defined vision for a new social venture and are ready to dedicate the year after graduation to launching that venture as a nonprofit organization. The GSB's Center for Social Innovation is piloting the Fellowship over the next three years. Beginning in spring 2009, a limited number of second-year students will be selected to receive a stipend for the following year as well as access to the many non-financial resources--information, professional networks, etc.--that the Center can provide.

Rita Winkler: What purpose does this fellowship serve and why is it necessary?

Janet Abrams: Many students come to the GSB with great motivation to make a difference in the world. While at Stanford, some develop specific ideas for how they might apply the knowledge and skills they're gaining here to solving serious social problems.
During their first year after graduation, the Fellowship allows MBAs who are starting a new venture in the nonprofit sphere the freedom to focus all of their energies on securing funding, personnel, partners, and other assets that will be essential for success.

Rita Winkler: Who is eligible? Is there an application process?

Janet Abrams: Second-year Stanford MBA students in good academic standing are eligible, as are teams of two led by a graduating MBA student who's in good academic standing. And yes, there's an application process. Candidates will submit a detailed proposal for their social venture in April. Those whose applications show real promise will be invited to present their ideas to the Fellowship selection committee in May. The Center for Social Innovation will announce the new Fellows in mid-to-late May.

Rita Winkler: What are the award criteria? How will you decide who should receive a fellowship?

Janet Abrams: The Fellowship selection committee is made up of GSB faculty and staff, experienced social entrepreneurs, and philanthropy professionals. This group will consider each candidate's degree of commitment to social entrepreneurship, the thoroughness of his or her plan, and the likelihood the envisioned nonprofit will make a significant impact.

Rita Winkler: Thank you Janet!

Learn more about the Social Innovation Fellowship

Learn more about the Center for Social Innovation and the Center's Public Management Program

Ciao,
--Rita

With the Round 2 application deadline just a little over a month away (7 January 2009) I wanted to draw your attention to the Top Ten most frequent (and avoidable) mistakes we find on your applications:

--Enter your name correctly. In the application, you enter your family name (also called last name) before your first name (also called given name). Yes, smart people make this mistake.

--Provide a specific reason for leaving any of your previous jobs--as opposed to a reason for accepting your next job. In the application verification process over the summer, this is the cause of many issues.

--Submit your application only after your recommenders have submitted your Letters of Reference. Stanford's instructions may differ from some other schools in this regard, but your application processing works best when you follow our advice. Trust us on this.

--If your university provided A/B/C/D grades, calculate your grade point average on a four-point scale (A=4, A-=3.7, B+=3.3, B=3, C=2, D=1, etc.). Do this even if your university did not calculate the grade point average. This is the easiest math problem that you're likely to see in an MBA program.

--If there is any period of four-plus months when you were neither in school nor working, tell us what you were doing during that time.

--For Essay C (Options 1-4) discuss experiences that have occurred in the last three years. Work, community, or college experiences are terrific, as long as they took place within the last three years. Be sure to tell us the "how" and "why," not just the "what."

--If you can't get a recommendation from your current supervisor, provide a brief explanation (one or two sentences) in the Additional Information section of the Online Application.

--For your Letter of Reference from a peer please make sure the person you pick is indeed a peer (an equal). Though few people like hierarchy, our supervisors are not our peers. Even if your supervisor is your friend, he/she by definition is not your peer. While many peers also are friends, remember that not all friends are good choices for recommendations.

--Check your transcript after you scan/upload it. As a general rule, if you can't read it, we can't read it.

--When calculating your months of work experience, only include post-college work and provide the months (not the years) through September of the year in which you plan to enroll (not as of the date you're applying).

As always, if you have any questions please contact us.

Thank you and best wishes,
LaNeika Ward
Acting Assistant Director of MBA Admissions

On December 3rd, 370 first-year students showed up for the final exam for Strategic Leadership, one of our core classes. But unlike most testing situations, everyone was wearing a suit. At the same time across campus, more than 160 senior level alumni and executives were being drilled on how to judge student performance. The all-day test is not a written exam, but is something called the Executive Challenge, and while it does count as a final exam for the class, it also serves as a unique opportunity to gain real-world learning from some of the most influential global leaders today.

The judges included current and former CEOs from multiple Fortune 500 companies and high-profile startups, managing partners of well known VC firms, and senior executives in finance, consulting and a myriad of other industries. Most flew in for the day - many from international destinations - excited to engage with students one-on-one and participate in a uniquely Stanford experience.

Working in teams of eight, students had to complete four experiential leadership challenges throughout the day, each simulating a typical situation faced by senior executives. One challenge required students to play the role of Chairman and CEO, working to convince reluctant board members to pursue an acquisition. A successful effort required both good business analysis and strong interpersonal skills. Alumni judges played the board members, each of whom had objectives and personalities that could have derailed the meeting if mishandled. One of the judges, Stu Francis, an alum from 1977 and Vice Chairman of Barclays Capital, told us, "It is very interesting to watch the students deal with things that come up in a day-to-day context in business. You do not learn it until you do it, except at Stanford. You learn it here."

The student response was overwhelmingly positive. One explained, "The Executive Challenge was terrific, particularly as it put learning in a real-world context where we were graded not on specific frameworks but on actual efficacy." It also served as a vehicle for connecting students with the deep alumni network. Many students and the alumni they met have since exchanged emails, or arranged to get together for coffee or dinner. Most students were floored to see how many high-profile alums made the time to stay connected to the school, making themselves accessible and providing valuable feedback.

The final exam ended as uniquely as it started, with a party-like atmosphere, as hundreds of students, alumni, faculty and GSB staff packed in an auditorium to honor the day's winners. But the biggest winner was clearly the Stanford GSB community as a whole, and everybody there feeling like a real part of it.

Congratulations on a job well done!

Mike Hochleutner, MBA '01
Executive Director
Center for Leadership Development & Research

Read more
Watch video

As of mid-week, we have extended around 400 interview invitations to first round candidates. We expect to invite an additional 150-200 applicants to interview in the next few weeks, as we read and evaluate first round applications before the notification deadline of 22 January 2009.

On the January 22 first round notification deadline, we also may ask 50-100 applicants to join the waitlist without having been interviewed, and may interview those candidates later.

I hope this is helpful. Best wishes for the holiday season.
Derrick

It's award season for the U.S. film industry, culminating with the Oscars on 22 February. Many GSB alumni play a significant role in the entertainment world, including Jeff Bewkes '77, President and CEO of Time-Warner, Inc.; Micheline L. Chau '76, President and COO of Lucasfilm, Ltd.; Yair Landau '89, President of Sony Pictures Entertainment; Ali Rowghani '02, CFO and Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Pixar Animation Studios; Tom Staggs '87, CFO and Senior Executive Vice President of The Walt Disney Company; and Andrea Wong '93, President and CEO of Lifetime Networks.

After leaving eBay, Jeff Skoll '95 founded Participant Media, which has produced many Oscar-nominated films, such as Murderball, The Kite Runner, and Good Night, and Good Luck, while its films Syriana and An Inconvenient Truth were both winners. If you watch the Oscars, keep an eye out for the Best Actor category. Richard Jenkins is nominated in this category for Participant's film The Visitor.

The arts are thriving right here on campus as well. Membership in the GSB's Arts, Media, and Entertainment Club has grown steadily, and now includes more than 140 MBA students. Many members have held positions at MTV, Disney, Universal, and Fox, to name a few. The club's big initiative this year is the Breaking into the Industry series, which brings industry insiders to campus for discussions about specific entertainment functions such as production, digital media, and corporate strategy. Also popular on campus is the Leadership in the Entertainment Industry course, which will be taught again this spring by Bill Guttentag, a two-time Oscar-winning documentary and feature film writer, producer, and director.

And finally, here's a movie viewing tip: The film Bottle Shock was released this month to DVD. Produced by GSB alumni Marc Lhormer '86 and J. Todd Harris '86, the movie chronicles California wine making and the now-infamous blind wine tasting of 1976 which changed the future of the wine industry. The film was an official selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, so look for it at your local video store.

We're excited to announce that second-year MBA student Andreata Muforo won the Social Equity Venture Fund (S.E.VEN) "Entrepreneurial President" essay competition and a $20,000 scholarship. Assuming the role of policy advisor to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, she wrote an essay on "Developing Rwanda's Private Sector through Entrepreneurship," which will be presented to President Kagame.

Andreata's essay was selected through a competitive review process that included a jury of leading business executives and development experts. Her essay was chosen from more than 650 submissions, received from more than 450 institutions and 35 countries, with submissions from places as diverse as Iran to China, and Peru to Burundi.

Andreata, who was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe, is understandably very excited about receiving the award, but she says she also feels "humbled by the opportunity to potentially impact a country."

For more information, visit http://www.sevenfund.org/press-release-feb-2009-president-awards.php.

As of this morning, we have invited 275 second-round candidates to interview. We will extend an additional 100-125 interview invitations to second-round candidates in the next couple of weeks.

During that same period, we plan to interview some of the first-round candidates who accepted spots on the waitlist without having interviewed.

I hope this is helpful,
Derrick

Every year 20 million premature or low-birth-weight children are born, many of them in rural areas of developing countries where they have no hope of receiving the medical care they need to survive. Enter Stanford's Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, a two-quarter course, co-taught by the Business School's Jim Patell in which graduate students across the University look for practical solutions to the problems of the global poor. One of its promising products is the Embrace, an inexpensive ($25 estimated) portable incubator designed to resemble a sleeping bag and heated by a material that keeps bag and baby at a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees for four hours without electricity.

The Embrace organization is itself in the incubation stage. The four-student team came up with the idea and developed it in class in 2007. Last June, two of the original team members, Jane Chen, MBA '08, and Rahul Panciker, PhD '08, Engineering, won an Echoing Green Fellowship, which provides seed funding for the project of up to $90,000 over two years. The organization has since received nonprofit status, the incubator and its heating system has a provisional patent, and Chen and Panicker are now in India conducting clinical tests of the Embrace. If all goes well, they will return to India later this year to test it in a community setting. See EmbraceGlobal.org.

Source: Stanford Business

The diversity of our students and our community is what makes the GSB such a dynamic place. People often ask us how we define diversity. For us, it's really about the breadth of perspective our students bring. You've probably read Derrick Bolton's thoughts on the subject, but if not, take a look here.

The breadth of perspective at the GSB is incredible. If you're interested in seeing this in action, there are two upcoming events you might be interested in. The xxFactor: Women Changing the World event will be held on 16 May. Hosted by the Women in Management club, the alumnae Women's Initiative Network, and the MBA Admission Office, this conference is geared toward women who are interested in applying to business school. This year's conference will focus on who attends business school and why, what kinds of opportunities are available for MBA graduates, and why experiential learning is transformational. All prospective students are welcome to participate. Applications are due 10 April. You can find more information here.

Many Voices: Perspectives on Diversity is hosted jointly by the Asian Society, Black Business Students Association, Hispanic Business Students Association, and the MBA Admission Office. This event provides the opportunity for you to meet GSB alumni, students, faculty, and staff, and to gain insight into our admission process. The event will be held on 17 May, and again, all are welcome. To attend Many Voices, you need to apply by 10 April. More information is available here.

Seeing the range of ideas and talent within our community might just help you envision how you would make a difference at the GSB. We look forward to meeting you at one or both of the events!

We have extended the deadlines for both Many Voices: Perspectives on Diversity and XX Factor: Women Changing The World. You may submit your application to attend by Monday, 13 April 2009, 5PM Pacific Time.

For more information on these events visit:
Many Voices
XX Factor

Hope to meet you during one of these events,

Ciao,
--Rita

Want to control your Wii using just your mind? In the market for a robot that can help you communicate from home? Need your Prius to get 100 miles per gallon? This year's Stanford Cool Product Expo, co-sponsored by the GSB, the Stanford Product Design & Manufacturing Club, and the Product Realization Network at Stanford, featured all this and more.

The mission of the Cool Product Expo is to generate interest in and excitement around "cool" products and companies in the field of manufacturing and design at Stanford and the community at large. This year's participants included start-ups, university research lab projects, and global manufacturers, all exhibiting products that aren't yet on the market. Many products focused on green technology---like Visible Energy's UFO, which allows consumers to "see" how much energy they're using and then helps reduce that amount.

Other products ranged from handy, to life-saving. D.light Design, co-founded by Sam Goldman, MBA 2007, and Ned Tozun, MBA 2007, exhibited the Nova lamp, designed to replace dangerous kerosene lamps with a clean, safe, and affordable lighting option for families living without electricity. Jane Chen, MBA 2008, one of the co-founders of Embrace (see "Incubator" entry below), was at the Expo displaying a low-cost, portable infant incubator. Many of the exhibitors are hoping to bring their products to market soon. Chen, for example, is in the final stages of development and funding for the incubator, and says, "Our goal is to get this global within the next five years."

The GSB faculty has voted to retire the Certificate in Global Management beginning with the MBA Class of 2011. The Global Management Program and the Center for Global Business and Economy will continue to enhance the global nature of the Business School.

Our original reason for creating the Certificate in Global Management back in 1994 was to provide a catalyst for more global content within the MBA Program. Even at its inception, our hope was for obsolescence once the MBA curriculum and our students were more global in perspective and experience. I am happy to announce that the deans and faculty have assessed that this time has come. Over the last 15 years, we have dramatically expanded the global nature of the Stanford MBA Program. With the introduction in 2007 of the Global Experience Requirement and the required Global Context of Management class, as well as an increase in global offerings across the GSB, it is inaccurate to suggest that some of our students are "global" and others are not. We believe that all of our students now graduate with a broader and deeper sense of how to manage effectively in the global economy. We hope you share our excitement that the School has achieved this notable milestone, and all of us in the Global Management Program look forward to supporting our students' development as global leaders.

--John Roberts, Faculty Director, Global Management Program

It was announced today that Anthony Wilder Miller, MBA 1992, has been nominated by the White House to be the Deputy Secretary of Education for the Department of Education. Miller will be joining Jim Shelton, MA/MBA 1993, who was recently named Assistant Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.

Other alumni who have made their mark on the hill in the Obama administration include Corey Booth, MBA 1995, Chief Information Officer for the Securities and Exchange Commission; David Lee Katz, MBA 2008, Special Assistant to the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy; Aditya Kumar, Director and Special Assistant for the Chief of Staff's Office at the White House; and Penny Sue Pritzker, JD/MBA 1984, national finance chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

At the end of every admission cycle, the GSB posts the upcoming year's application and notification deadlines. We typically do this after our Round 3 response deadline. However, because we have moved up the date for applying for Round 1, we decided to post our deadlines now to give you a bit more time to prepare. You can find the deadlines here. In July, we'll be adding more information to our site, including the admission application and instructions, so make sure to check back.

Also, as we do every year, we've posted the new short-answer essay questions; the two longer-format essay questions remain unchanged. You can find all of the questions, along with essay-writing tips from Derrick Bolton, our director of MBA Admissions, here.

As is customary for many business schools, we will post the new class profile when our students arrive in September. Until then, happy application planning!

It was just announced that our own Garth Saloner will be the ninth dean of the GSB, effective 1 September 2009. Saloner joined the Stanford faculty in 1990 and is a scholar of entrepreneurship and business strategy. He was also instrumental in creating and implementing the new MBA curriculum.

>> Learn more about our new dean

The GSB's Global Study Trips offer abundant opportunities for learning well after the trips are over. MBA students return--from locations as diverse as Ghana, Peru, and Scandinavia--with knowledge, stories, and advice that they pass on to the campus community. Recently, students from a spring study trip to Mexico were inspired to bring to Stanford the musical group Los Tigres Del Norte. The group--who regularly packs stadiums in Latin America--shared with the GSB the inspiration behind its Grammy-winning music.

Watch the video of Los Tigres' visit. You can also learn more about the GSB's Global Study Trips on our website.

The relationships that you form at the Stanford Graduate School of Business are close and long-lasting--one of the benefits of our small class size. Our active alumni chapters are evidence of this, with events both formal and informal taking place all over the world.

On 7 June, GSB alumni and newly admitted students gathered in Mumbai at the Taj Mahal hotel for a discussion with Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. As Deputy Governor, Mohan is in charge of monetary policy, financial markets, and economic research and statistics for India's central bank.

Mohan's visit, which was sponsored by the GSB India alumni chapter, featured extensive Q&A. Attendees traveled from areas such as Bangalore and Kashmir to hear the presentation. For those of us who couldn't make it to the event, Mohan will be a visitor at the Stanford Center for International Development this fall.

From left to right: Akhil Gupta, MBA 1981, Jo Pattabiraman, MBA 2002, Dr. Rakesh Mohan, Nadir Godrej, MS 1974, Dr. Rati Godrej, Naushad Forbes, BAS 1981, MS 1982, PhD 1987, Farhad Forbes, BS 1977, MS 1979, Sloan 1991, and Jagdish Malkani, Sloan 1993

Interested in applying to the Stanford Graduate School of Business? The application for the Class of 2012 is now available here.

As previously announced, we have moved up our Round 1 application deadline to 7 October 2009. We also may be extending interviews earlier this year. As always, we encourage you to review our website soon and submit your application as early as possible within the round you choose to apply.

For complete application information, including deadlines, please visit the Admission section of our site.

Today we extended our first interview invitation for the 2009-2010 application year. This is just the first invitation of many, but we thought it was worth celebrating.

Just as a reminder, the Round One application deadline is 7 October. We will be extending interview invitations up until the decision notification deadline of 16 December.