Avtar Hari Singh Khalsa (MBA '69) Classmates may remember Khalsa as Arthur S. Warshaw, MIT graduate and Baker Scholar. "No one is more surprised than I when I look in the mirror," he remarks on his inner and outer transformation. Khalsa embraced the Sikh faith, which originated in India 550 years ago, after meeting Yogi Bhajan, the spiritual leader who brought Sikhism to the West in 1969. "Eleven years ago, I began to spend time with Sikhs in California and to practice their lifestyle, and I eventually made the leap to wearing the white garments that remind us of our commitment to living our spirituality daily," he says. The former real-estate developer and president of Time-Life Television is now CEO of Sun & Son, a computer consulting firm devoted to enabling 21st-century businesses to communicate and share information in new ways. "I believe such technologies will lead to ever-increasing global understanding and trust - truly spiritual principles," Khalsa says.

Jennifer Faith Lawrence (MBA '87) "At the so-called peak of my career I had a fancy title, lots of people reporting to me, a big office, lots of money-and I was totally miserable," says Jennifer Lawrence, a savvy executive who was named head of marketing for the Rockport Company shoe firm at age 32. "I realized I didn't want to be living on an airplane and treating people as though my needs were more important than theirs. I wanted to change my life," she says. After a period of reflection and working with a career counselor, she was invited to guest lecture at Boston University. "I knew I was meant to teach," says Lawrence, who is now a marketing professor at BU. She also consults to clients with "knotty, interesting marketing problems." Her dream? "To open a complete coaching getaway, called Renewal Lodge, where people can find the best parts of themselves again."

Alonzo L. McDonald, Jr. (MBA '56) Al McDonald has excelled at leadership in the worlds of business, government, and education. A former top executive at McKinsey and Bendix, between 1977 and 1981 McDonald was an ambassador, an assistant to President Jimmy Carter, and a White House staff director. "I had a view of the pinnacle of earthly power," he says, "and yet all I could see was frustration. I began to realize there's a greater power at work in society than we humans possess even in our most influential posts. So I started thinking, reading, and trying to discover for myself the deeper meaning of life and what my Creator wants for me." Today, McDonald spends much of his time supporting various ministry activities and participating in discussions at the Trinity Forum, an institute he cofounded to prompt spiritual dialogue among secular leaders. "I've always been a hard-nosed business guy," he says. "I'm sure lots of my old friends come to the Trinity Forum just to see what's come over me!"

photo courtesy Alonzo L. McDonald, Jr.

James M. Stuart (MBA '69) In the late 1800s, Jim Stuart's great-grandfather founded the Quaker Oats Company with "integrity" and "trustworthy" as part of its motto. Today, those words are more than a marketing strategy for the fourth-generation Stuart-they have come to form the core of his life quest. "The real question that has fascinated me is, How do you develop those two values within an organization at the end of the twentieth century?" says Stuart, who served in various managerial capacities for Quaker Oats from 1969 to 1985. "I was known as 'the Prussian General' by my HBS friends because I was a big, powerful, fearless guy," he recalls. "I always commanded from the head of the table, shouting, 'This is not a democracy!' Then a series of personal tragedies and professional smashings made me seriously reassess my life and mature spiritually. I'm much gentler and happier now." Stuart teaches marketing at the University of South Florida.

Richard C. Whiteley (MBA '68) "About twenty years ago the death of my parents and a divorce, in rapid succession, set me on a journey to answer the question, Who am I?" says Richard Whiteley. "I discovered that my life purpose is to bring spirit back into business through my writing, speaking, and consulting and to keep working on my own personal growth." An internationally acclaimed speaker and author of the award-winning, best-selling books The Customer-Driven Company and Customer-Centered Growth, Whiteley's recent writing explores "how to free the individual so that when people come to work, all parts of them show up-not just their hands or their head but their heart, spirit, and soul." "Everyone has something unique, some outstanding quality that is special," he says. "It's part of the leader's job to discover the genius in each employee and create an environment in which that can flourish."

Peter B. Vaill (MBA '60, DBA '64) "My HBS classmates would probably remember me as the guy who worried more about the philosophical issues of the cases than whether we could get market share up another tenth of a percent," Peter Vaill laughs. His interest in the people side of business led him to become one of the pioneers in the "organizational excellence" movement in the early 1970s. Cited in some circles as one of the country's top ten organizational development specialists, Vaill is lately known for his ideas on what he's termed "permanent white water" -the turbulent social and organizational conditions that managerial leaders face today. Now he is helping to lead the dialogue on the "respiriting" of the workplace. "Divorces, job changes, and the cold wind of personal mortality blowing on my neck have all fed into my interest in issues of personal meaning in relationship to work," Vaill notes.