Newsmakers

Change of Pace

Having retired from Congress after representing his western New York district for eighteen years, Amory Houghton Jr. (MBA ’52) is now working as a volunteer with his old friend, Bishop Thomas Shaw, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. “The arrangement reflects a long-standing friendship between the liberal bishop and the GOP politician, who share an interest in putting the values of their Christian faith into action in the secular arena,” the Boston Globe (March 7, 2005) reported.

Houghton, who himself at one time considered entering the ministry, will advise the diocese on public policy and the expression of faith in public life. He will also lend his expertise to nuts-and-bolts issues, such as assessing the financial risks involved in the diocese’s possible support for a housing project in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “It’s activity that’s preferable to my natural inclination to recline,” Houghton explained, adding that he wanted to “try to do something that is reasonably worthwhile.”

Power Couple

Richard Sarnoff (MBA ’87), a group president at Random House, is one forward-looking media exec who has some impressive links to the industry’s past: His great-uncle, former RCA chairman David Sarnoff, was instrumental in developing the first commercial radio station and in shaping what would become today’s mass media. Sarnoff, who works closely with Random House chairman and CEO Peter Olson (MBA ’76), is, among other priorities, helping to position the publisher in the digital arena, including wireless-content distribution. “The first application of wireless transmission was point-to-point, ship-to-shore, rather than broadcast,” Sarnoff told BusinessWeek (March 7, 2005). “Uncle Dave might look at this narrowcasting phenomenon and think ship-to-shore is coming back.”

The Sarnoff household is further wired into media: Richard’s wife, Ann Misiaszek Sarnoff (MBA ’87), is COO of the Women’s National Basketball Association, responsible for advertising, marketing, communications, broadcasting, and merchandising. “It’s a job and a cause,” she says of the WNBA post, which she came to after stints at Nickelodeon and later at VH1 and Country Music Television, where she was COO.

Read This and Write

Koruth

Courtesy Monisha Koruth

“If you are capable of reading this article, you are capable of writing a short story,” says Monisha Saldanha Koruth (MBA ’01), cofounder and director of London’s Momaya Press, dedicated to the promotion and publication of short stories. Koruth, a manager at an Internet development services firm, publishes an annual short-story review, sponsors a short-story competition, and organizes theatrical performances adapted from stories. “Our goal is to create a friendly, nonthreatening forum that will encourage people to both write and read short stories,” she says. “A short story can be written in an afternoon or a weekend. We all have stories to tell, and it is a thing of beauty to share your mind with the world.” For this year’s competition (deadline June 30), Koruth welcomes submissions at www.momayapress.com.

Cultural Revolution at GE

Jeffrey Immelt (MBA ’82) had a tough act to follow when he took over as GE chairman and CEO in September 2001 from the legendary Jack Welch. Ever since, Immelt has been on a mission to transform the $152 billion industrial and finance behemoth from one famously obsessed with deal-making and bottom-line results to one fixated on risk taking and creativity.

Immelt is convinced that the company’s future lies in creating a culture that fosters blockbuster ideas and world-class marketing. “It’s a different era,” he explained to BusinessWeek (March 28, 2005).

GE has jettisoned its past taboo on hiring outsiders for its top management ranks and stopped the merry-go-round of promotions and relocations for top managers. Immelt now wants managers to stay put and become experts in their industries, not just experts in management. The ferment may unsettle some, but Immelt is upbeat. At a gathering of top GE executives in January, he declared that “there’s never been a better day, a better time, or a better place to be [than at GE]!”

Contrarian and Proud of It

Rogers: Stellar stock picker.

Courtesy T. Rowe Price

Brian Rogers (MBA ’82) has made a career out of being a contrarian. As manager of the $18.9 billion T. Rowe Price Equity Income Fund, the firm’s largest offering, Rogers has produced stellar returns by picking ugly duckling stocks shunned by most investors. From the fund’s inception in 1985, he has posted annualized returns of 13.4 percent, nearly two percentage points higher than other large-cap value funds. “Invariably, we’re looking at companies where investors are concerned about prospects,” Rogers told BusinessWeek (March 21, 2005). “That concern creates opportunity.”

Rogers particularly likes stocks with high dividends and low price-earnings ratios. A patient investor, he typically holds on to stocks for three to six years. Lately, he has branched out to add growth stocks to the fund’s portfolio. “Growth stocks are cheap by historical standards,” he said. “I have no idea if it will work out in 2005 and 2006, but I feel like it’s a good bet.”

A Tough Assignment

O’neill: An educational expedition.

Courtesy Shackleton Schools

As a corporate lawyer living in Greenwich, Connecticut, Luke O’Neill (MBA ’95) was on a well-defined path of success. But something about his life didn’t sit right. He quit his job, worked at a few nonprofits, and enrolled at HBS. “When he graduated, he had $3,000 in his bank account, an ailing six-year-old Isuzu Trooper, and $80,000 in debt,” reported Forbes (March 28, 2005).

That was when O’Neill decided to start the Shackleton Schools, named for the intrepid British explorer and devoted to training future leaders through a unique, expeditionary curriculum. (Students, for example, might travel to Mexico to learn about NAFTA and the lives of sweatshop workers.) Undaunted by financial demands, O’Neill leveraged his fundraising skills. In 1998, Shackleton enrolled its first class of nine students. Today, the school employs a staff of thirty and continues to build and improve on its 70-acre base camp in Ashby, Massachusetts.

The challenge, however, is ongoing. “I work longer days than in my lawyer days,” said O’Neill, who has raised $16 million to date. “Everything is fundraising. Everybody is a potential donor.”