A strong commitment to community service is a given for most HBS clubs — the challenge lies in determining the most efficient means of leveraging the skills and interests of club members to create change. New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., clubs have met that need through partnership programs that connect alumni with nonprofit organizations in need of privatesector expertise on specific consulting projects. Now the HBS Clubs of South Florida and Minnesota have established their own “Community Partners” programs — and hope others will follow suit.

Vivian Sanchez (MBA ’93), head of the South Florida initiative, notes that the alumni base is smaller and more scattered in that region than in Boston or San Francisco, for instance, but is pleased with the results from their first sixmonth project cycle. “The core model for Community Partners works well, and every region can adapt it to their situation,” she observes. “It’s a question of managing the projects and assembling strong groups of volunteers to achieve quality output for each project.”

Twentyseven volunteers staffed five projects for the group’s inaugural effort. “This is a very targeted, satisfying way for alumni to use their business skills,” says Sanchez, noting that the group will assess and refine its strategies before entering the next project cycle.

Richard Gehrman (MBA ’76) and Tony Levy (MBA ’88) serve as cochairs of the Community Partners Program affiliated with the HBS Club of Minnesota. “Alumni are an untapped resource for our communities, and HBS clubs can be a bridge between the two,” says Levy. “In today’s soft economy, there is a particularly urgent need for privatesector best practices to be brought to bear on nonprofit organizations.”

The Minnesota group is using the Management Assistance Program (MAP), a local nonprofit, to match volunteers with projects. In addition to consulting work, volunteers can mentor a nonprofit executive or serve as a board member.

Both Levy and Sanchez of South Florida cite Kathy Salmanowitz (MBA ’78), executive director of the Community Partners Program in Northern California, as an essential source of expertise to get their groups up and running. Ana Maria Camargo (MBA ’93) of Boston’s Community Action Partners, Judy Benardete (MBA ’95) of the HBS Social Enterprise Alumni Association, and Melissa Williams (MBA ’95) of the HBS Club of Washington, D.C., also offered considerable support.

“We’re interested in talking to anybody who is trying to create a similar program in their community,” says Levy. “The HBS network was invaluable when it came to organizing our own efforts.”

“It was wonderful to see alumni take an interest in expanding what had been successful for them into other cities,” Sanchez agrees. “I would love to do the same for anyone else.”

For further information on the Community Partners Program in South Florida, e-mail HBSCPSF@aol.com; for information on the Minnesota program, visit www.hbsclubmn.org.

Philadelphia Club Hosts Shapiro

Photo courtesy HBS Club of Philadelphia

HBS professor emeritus Ben Shapiro addressed the HBS Club of Philadelphia at a gala benefit on March 27. The event, held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, raised funds that will sponsor a local nonprofit executive director at the HBS Executive Education program Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management. Past recipients have included Janice Price, president and CEO of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and Jim Balfanz, executive director for City Year Greater Philadelphia.

Shapiro, an authority on marketing strategy and sales management, spoke on the subject “Specialties vs. Commodities: It’s Not All about the Price.” He is pictured with Philadelphia Club chairman V.J. Pappas (MBA ’76, at left) and Robert Bristol Collins (MBA ’91).

Health Industry Alumni Present Life Sciences Event

Roland Smith, Texas regional director and cochair, Graduate Schools Committee, Harvard Alumni Association; Juan Enriquez; and Robert Schultz (22nd OPM), president, Harvard Club of San Antonio.

Over three hundred participants gathered at The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Health Science Center on February 23 for “Transforming Life, Transforming Business: The Life Science Revolution,” an event sponsored by the HBS Health Industry Alumni Association and the Harvard Club of San Antonio.

Speakers included Juan Enriquez (MBA ’86), director of the HBS Life Sciences Project; Wolfgang Klietmann (12th OPM) of the Health Industry Alumni Association; James Wild, head of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M; and Susan Naylor, professor of cellular and structural biology at The University of Texas Health Science Center.

Women’s Association Celebrates Ten Years

Reception attendees included Yuki F. Horiguchi (MBA ’02), Whelan, Dean Clark, McCormick, and Christine S. Warden (MBA ’97)

The HBS Women’s Association of Boston celebrated its tenth anniversary on March 13 with a cocktail reception in Kresge Lounge on the HBS campus. Copresidents Jean M. McCormick (MBA ’88) and Kim Ulrich Whelan (MBA ’84) introduced Dean Kim B. Clark, who addressed the gathering.

“Our mission is to create an exchange of information, experiences, and perspectives so that HBS alumnae at different stages of their lives and careers may more fully realize their personal and professional goals,” Whelan said after the reception. “It was wonderful to hear Dean Clark’s views on some of the issues facing women as students and alums of the Business School.”

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