AWARD WINNERS: Benjamin Fenton (MBA '00), Iris Chen (MBA/JD '01), and Marc Sternberg (MBA '00) at the HBS Club of Greater New York's annual Leadership Dinner.

Photo by LARRY BUSACCA

Recognizing the many accomplishments of senior business executives has always been the central theme of the HBS Club of Greater New York’s annual Leadership Dinner. But this year for the first time, the club decided to also honor younger New York alumni who already are making their mark in the nonprofit arena.

Iris Chen (MBA/JD ’01), executive director of Teach For America; Benjamin Fenton (MBA ’00), cofounder and COO of New Leaders for New Schools; and Marc Sternberg (MBA ’00), founder and principal of the Bronx Lab School, each received the club’s Social Enterprise Award for their work in public education. HBS professor James Austin, cofounder and former chair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, presented the awards. “Over the past decade, social enterprise has become an integral part of HBS and central to its mission of developing leaders who make a difference in the world,” he said. “This award reinforces that centrality by recognizing the vital contributions that our recent graduates are making as social enterprise leaders generating important social value.”

The Social Enterprise Award was created to highlight the increasing number of young alumni who have chosen to work for nonprofits in the New York area, explained Ed Hajim (MBA ’64), chairman of this year’s Leadership Dinner. “My class started making grants to social enterprise programs five years ago,” he said. “Now we’re seeing that pay off in the New York area.” The announcement of awards to honor young alums caused a buzz of approval at the sold-out dinner, which hosted 575 alumni and friends. “We realized that to recognize only those who have already established careers overlooks the fact that many graduates have been motivated by the School’s Social Enterprise Initiative to pursue this work full-time,” said Nancy Lane (PMD 29, 1975), a member of the dinner committee and former president of the HBSCNY. “We should also recognize the young people who are focusing on the HBS mission. Let’s not wait until they become CEOs; let’s acknowledge those who are doing it now.”

Chen is leading the expansion of the New York City operations of Teach For America, a national nonprofit that recruits individuals to teach for two years in low-income urban and rural communities.

Fenton manages programs and financial operations for New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS), a national nonprofit aimed at improving education for all children by recruiting and supporting leaders for urban public schools. When Fenton was at HBS, NLNS was the first nonprofit organization to be named a semifinalist in the annual HBS Business Plan Contest, leading to the formation of a separate social enterprise track in the contest.

In 2004, with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sternberg founded and became principal of the Bronx Lab School, an innovative high school within the New York City Depart-ment of Education. Its mission is to provide a superior high-school experience to the city’s neediest, most-neglected population.

The annual HBSCNY Leadership Dinner is a black-tie gathering that honors outstanding individuals with the Business Statesman Award, presented this year to Jamie Dimon (MBA ’82), president and COO of JPMorgan Chase, and the Leadership Award, presented to Joel Smilow (MBA ’58), former chairman, CEO, and president of Playtex Products Inc., and Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express Company. Proceeds from the dinner are used to fund scholarships, community-service efforts, and the club’s operations.

— Margie Kelley

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