Network
Directory AssistanceThe above link connects to the most frequent points of contact between the School and its alumni. We hope it will make HBS services more accessible to you, as well as suggest new ways to take advantage of the HBS network.
The Harvard Club of Austrailia:
Networking with a Cause
Building Community in the Bay Area
Save the Dates
Cyberposium
(Sponsored by the HBS High Tech & New Media Club)
HBS
February 8–10, 2002
Spring Meeting of the HBSAA Board
of Directors/Club Officers Roundtable
HBS
May 29–30, 2002
Spring 2002 Reunions/MBA Classes
of 1927, 1932, 1937, 1942, 1947, 1952, 1982, 1987, 1992,
1997
HBS
May 30–June 2, 2002
Class Day and Commencement
HBS
June 5–6, 2002
The Harvard Clubs of Australia: Networking with a Cause
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American-born Philip W. Stern (MBA ’82) moved to Australia
in 1985, spending several years as a McKinsey consultant. He has
been Down Under ever since. Now a self-proclaimed Sydney local,
Stern is a partner at the management consulting firm of Port Jackson
Partners Limited and serves as president of the Harvard Club of
Australia (HCA). “When I came here I did what a lot of other
alumni do,” he says. “I sought out the Harvard Club
and got involved.” Stern was part of the HCA council for
about ten years before taking over as president in 2000.
HCA members hail from all Harvard programs, although the majority
of the club’s 665 members are HBS alumni. The club is a well-rounded
group, and Stern cites diversity as one of its attractions. “I
think our members enjoy the breadth of membership,” he remarks.
“They meet a full range of alumni, from MBAs to those with
undergraduate degrees to Ph.D.’s from the Divinity School.”
During his term, Stern has worked to continue long-standing traditions
and to initiate new ones. The Leadership Program, a top-notch
executive course run by HBS professors, is now in its fifth year.
This year’s offering, Strategic & Entrepreneurial Management:
Turning Today’s Managers into Tomorrow’s Leaders, will
take place in Sydney May 26–31. The program is important,
Stern notes, because it brings “a bit of Harvard down here”
— no small feat considering the distance.
A portion of the fees from the Leadership Program also supports
the Menzies Scholarship, long the centerpiece of the HCA’s
activities. The prestigious scholarship, founded by former HCA
president and current World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn
(MBA ’59), awards U.S.$50,000 to students bound for any Harvard
graduate program. The award’s fiftieth recipient will be
named by this April.
In establishing new events and traditions, Stern is in frequent
contact with his Melbourne counterpart, Patrick G. O’Brien
(MBA ’94), president of the Harvard Club of Australia–Victoria
(HCAV). O’Brien and Stern agree on the clubs’ dual objectives:
provide social networking occasions for its members and raise
funds for worthy causes. In addition to the Menzies Scholarship,
the clubs have recently initiated Nonprofit Fellowships that send
CEOs, executive directors, and other top managers to HBS to attend
the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program. (The
weeklong course, led by HBS professors emeriti Stephen A. Greyser
and James L. Heskett, explores strategic concepts in areas such
as mission, organizational structure and alliances, and financial
management and control.) “The fellowship really uses our
Harvard links to contribute to the local community,” says
O’Brien, a native of Melbourne who is an associate director
at Macquarie Bank Ltd. “The HCA and HCAV offer a great opportunity
for Harvard alumni to get together and network, but we like to
do that with a good cause in mind, too.”
Under O’Brien’s guidance, the HCAV was also part of
a Summit on Nonprofit Leadership in Melbourne last fall. Over
two hundred leaders of nonprofit institutions attended the event.
Professor Greyser, slated as a speaker but unable to fly in the
wake of September 11, led his sessions via videoconference.
Although Stern and O’Brien live a few hundred miles apart,
they spearhead a coordinated effort to reach out to club members
across Australia by publishing the Club News, a quarterly newsletter
full of events listings such as cocktail parties, Leadership Luncheons,
Monday Club discussions, and theater outings.
Both Stern and O’Brien are near the end of their terms as
president; Stern notes that the HCA’s founders “had
a very intelligent design” in not allowing a president to
serve more than two years. “I think that’s one of the
strengths of our club,” he says. “We’ve had a series
of very dedicated people who maintain a high level of energy and
enthusiasm, both on the social side and on the scholarship side.”
New leadership will be chosen this year at each club’s annual
general meeting.
For further information on the Harvard Clubs of Australia,
visit www.harvard.org.au.
— Amy Burton
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Building Community in the Bay Area
Last
fall, over eighty HBS alumni and nonprofit leaders gathered in
Menlo Park, California, to hear HBS
senior lecturer Reynold Levy discuss the relationship between
nonprofit CEOs and their boards. Levy, himself a CEO of the New
York City– based International Rescue Committee, spoke candidly
about his experiences with his board and about critical issues
relating to governing nonprofit organizations today.
The event was hosted by the HBS Community Partners, a group established
by the HBS
Association of Northern California in 1986 to give local alumni
a chance to channel their interests and skills into community
service. Since that time, more than 400 HBS alumni have volunteered
business consulting assistance to over 150 nonprofit organizations
throughout the Bay Area, including museums, symphonies, and social
service and community development agencies.
The gathering also served as an occasion to honor Claudia Stern
(MBA ’85) with the Jim Stocker Volunteer Award for Excellence.
Each year this distinction is presented to an HBS graduate who
has made significant contributions to Community Partners and its
clients. Stern was singled out for her work as a volunteer as
well as for her ten years of service on the Community Partners
steering committee.
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