Stories
Stories
New York Alumni Connect Around a 'Vision' for the New HBS
Thai Lee (MBA 1985) delivered remarks at The HBS Campaign New York Regional Event, November 12, 2014.
New York City-area alumni and friends of Harvard Business School gathered on November 12, 2014 to celebrate and connect with each other as the School hosted “A Vision for the 21st Century” as part of the world tour of The Harvard Business School Campaign.
Lincoln Center’s famed Alice Tully Hall was transformed into an elegant lounge for the evening’s reception, enabling hundreds of alumni from the metro New York region and beyond to reconnect with and meet other alumni in the region, as well as with HBS faculty members and administrators. The evening also featured remarks by Dean Nitin Nohria, Professors Robert S. Kaplan and Malcolm Baker, Associate Professor Amy Cuddy, recent graduate Craig Kessler (MBA 2014), HBS Campaign Chair John B. Hess (MBA 1977), and Campaign Vice Chair and New York Regional Chair James Dinan (MBA 1985) and Regional Chair Thai Lee (MBA 1985). Two inspiring new films – My HBS and A Vision for the Future – highlighted the impact of the School and its faculty and alumni on the major challenges facing business and society today.
“As I look around the room today, I am awed by the people who are gathered in this room,” said Lee. “We are leaders, not only in our respective business fields but we have leaders who have contributed so much to our communities, to our school, and across all segments of non-profit organizations. Most of all I see leaders who are not just motivated but compelled and driven to change the status quo and make a difference every single day.
“We live in a turbulent world,” Lee added. “The world desperately needs the type of leadership that people in this room can offer. Our leadership can extend throughout the society and around the world. Think about how many pressing challenges can benefit from the leadership that the graduates of HBS can provide. This is an incredible time, a time for all of us to come together, support each other, our communities, and the School.”
“One of the things I love about being connected to HBS,” said Dinan, “is you get to learn what students, faculty, all these young, exciting alumni are doing. And I think, like all of you, I’m continually impressed how relevant HBS continues to be and what great things it is doing and how engaged it is in our community.
“If you go out into our world, what you find is that Harvard Business School really has a special place,” Dinan added. “The world really recognizes that people coming out of Harvard know what they are doing, are instilled with a certain level of basic ethics and principles. And these are the people they want to engage with and want to do things with.
“As I believe Nitin and his vision for the School,” Dinan said, “I feel strongly about taking this leadership role here in New York as well as in the overall campaign. We have all benefitted from the generosity of alumni who graduated before us. And now it is our turn to make an impact on future generations of HBS graduates.”
The Harvard Business School Campaign was launched in April 2014 to raise $1 billion over the next five years to support innovation in the curriculum, faculty research, and collaboration across the Harvard community, and to support an unprecedented alumni outreach program that will significantly increase engagement with and among alumni well in to the future. The HBS goal is part of Harvard University’s $6.5 billion campaign announced last September.
“This Campaign is largely about tapping into our collective imagination to try to envision the future—and to give our institution the resources it will require to meet the challenges this future will bring,” said Dean Nohria. “As we do so, we need to think not only of the challenges and opportunities facing Harvard Business School, but also the great opportunities we have to help create positive change throughout the world.
“And the Campaign is about more than raising money,” he noted. “It provides an opportunity to inspire and engage the next generation of leaders at the School—to better connect alumni with each other and with HBS in powerful ways as a School, as a community, and as individuals, as we strive to embody the mission of the School to ‘make a difference in the world’.”
As part of the Campaign, the School has created a new website that enables HBS alumni to connect with one other based on a wide range of personal and professional interests. The website includes hundreds of stories that highlight the impact of HBS alumni and faculty in organizations and communities around the world.
The effort to engage alumni began in Boston on April 26, 2014 and will extend around the world over the next 18 months as Dean Nohria and select faculty travel to alumni events across the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Visit the alumni website for a list of upcoming events.
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