Stories
Stories
Seven Honored with Alumni Achievement Award
On October 19, the School conferred its highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, on seven distinguished individuals. Since 1968, the School has selected outstanding men and women for the award, recognizing their accomplishments in the public and the private sectors, as well as in social enterprise and philanthropy. This year’s recipients exemplify the award’s ideals and purpose to a remarkable degree. In light of the breadth and depth of their impressive careers, it is sometimes easy to overlook the fact that Alumni Achievement Award honorees have a life “behind the scenes” that has influenced and shaped who they are. They have overcome adversity, been inspired by others, and gained sustenance not only from their families but also from activities and pursuits that they personally enjoy. With that in mind, we present below sketches of the award recipients to provide a better sense of the private individuals behind the more public personae. For complete profiles, visit www.alumni.hbs.edu/awards/.
Photos by Webb Chappell
Kathryn E. Giusti (MBA ’85)
Founder and CEO
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium
A former marketing executive at Merck, Gillette, and Searle, Kathy Giusti was diagnosed in 1996 with multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer. She then founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium, organizations that have revolutionized cancer research and drug development.
What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
Write, then I walk the dog and feed the kids. I’m an early riser.
How do you relax?
I run, do yoga, and spend time with my son and daughter. I appreciate every day with them.
My daughter was eighteen months old when the doctors said I probably wouldn’t see her through kindergarten. Now she’s in high school.
What was your first job?
Grocery store cashier, at 14. It made me want to go to college.
Who inspires you?
Lance Armstrong. He’s really raised cancer awareness.
Robert F. Greenhill (MBA ’62)
Founder and Chairman
Greenhill & Co., LLC
A 31-year veteran and former president of Morgan Stanley, Bob Greenhill launched his own boutique merchant bank, Greenhill & Co., in 1996 and took it public in 2004. The firm currently has a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion.
Greenhill and his wife, Gayle, are active members of the HBS community and notable supporters of the School’s Global Initiative.
As an investor, what was your biggest flop?
I don’t think that way.
What’s your proudest achievement?
My family. If you have a decent family, nothing can compete with that. It’s not how much money you have, it’s your family, your friends, and your health.
What devices do you use?
I’m a nerd. I use everything you can think of: BlackBerry, Kindle, computer.
What role do social media play in your life?
None.
Henry M. Paulson Jr. (MBA ’70)
Distinguished Visiting Scholar, The Johns Hopkins University
Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Former Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
During his 32 years at Goldman Sachs, Hank Paulson rose through the ranks, becoming chairman and CEO in 1999, the year he shepherded the firm through its historic initial public offering.
Named Treasury Secretary in 2006, Paulson led the country through one of its most challenging periods of financial turbulence. A lifelong environmentalist, he and his wife, Wendy, work to protect natural resources around the world.
Whom do you admire?
Alexander Hamilton.
Favorite national park?
Yellowstone.
What’s your proudest achievement?
Being willing and able to make tough decisions during the credit crisis that, although not perfect, I believe were largely correct.
When are you most relaxed?
When I’m saltwater fly-fishing.
William K. Bowes Jr. (MBA ’52)
Founding Partner
U.S. Venture Partners
After founding U.S. Venture Partners in San Francisco in 1981, Bill Bowes helped shape companies such as Sun Microsystems, Callaway Golf, Applied Biosystems, and Ross Stores. More recently, he has focused on venture philanthropy in both start-ups and established institutions.
What was your biggest flop?
I’ve had numerous flops. In the venture capital business, that’s a given.
How do you relax?
Walking, reading, travel. I used to surf and golf; now I work out at a gym.
In your philanthropy, is there an area that you’re particularly involved with?
Medical research. I’m interested in very focused and very early investing.
What’s the next big thing in that area?
Stem cell initiatives are going to produce interesting therapeutics. Good diagnostic and early detection, particularly of cancer, will emerge soon from imaging technologies.
What do you think your HBS classmates would be surprised to learn about you?
That I’m an Alumni Achievement Award recipient. I was a late bloomer. Back then we were all just average Joes.
Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Sicupira, and Marcel Telles have been primary figures in Brazil’s economic development for more than thirty years.
In 1971, Lemann founded Banco de Investimentos Garantia and soon recruited Sicupira and Telles to join what would become the most successful investment bank in Brazil.
Jorge Paulo Lemann (AB ’61)
Director, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Board Member, Fundação Estudar
Chairman, Lemann Foundation
Jorge Paulo Lemann (above, center) is the leading force behind Banco Garantia, Brazil’s most prestigious investment bank. At Garantia and later at GP Investimentos, he helped transform the national economy, giving Brazilians access to consumer goods, jobs, and global markets.
Dividing his time among corporate boards, family, and educational causes, Lemann heads a family foundation that supports education, health, the environment, and medicine in Brazil.
What do you think of the Brazil-U.S. relationship?
I think the United States and Brazil could do a lot more together. There’s a lot of potential for partnership.
Books you’re reading?
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell; The Snowball, about Warren Buffett.
What’s the first Web site you look at in the morning?
I read my e-mail. I’m a fan of newspapers — the paper kind.
What keeps you up at night?
Not much. I like to sleep.
Carlos Sicupira (OPM 9, 1984)
Director, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Chairman, Lojas Americanas
Starting in the 1980s, at Banco Garantia, Carlos (“Beto”) Sicupira (above, left) grew a Rio de Janeiro department store into Lojas Americanas, with some 500 stores. In 1993, with Lemann and Telles, Sicupira founded GP Investimentos, a private equity firm that he led for eight years.
Sicupira is the founder and also a director of Endeavor Brasil, a nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs, and the Brava Foundation, which works to improve public-sector management in Brazil.
What do you do first thing in the morning?
Go to the gym, then check my e-mail.
Book you’re reading?
Joker One, by Donovan Campbell MBA ’07, Kindle edition.
How do you relax?
Spearfishing and cycling.
Where do you spend your time?
Sixty percent in Europe and the United States, 40 percent in Brazil. Right now I’m in China, so the math doesn’t add up.
Marcel Telles (OPM 10, 1985)
Director, Anheuser-Busch InBev
In 1989, Marcel Telles and his two partners gained control of one of Brazil’s largest breweries. With Telles (above, right) at the helm, the firm evolved into InBev, later partnering with Anheuser-Busch. Today, the three men sit on the board of Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Wth Lemann and Sicupira, Telles founded Fundação Estudar with the goal of helping educate the future public- and private-sector leaders of Brazil.
Where is home?
I spend most of my time on planes. Officially I live in Switzerland.
Whom do you admire?
Nelson Mandela. I will never forget the day he was elected president. He was all smiles even though he had suffered so much. He reconciled a whole country.
Favorite beverage?
Bud Light. Now that we’ve partnered with Anheuser-Busch, I can finally have the beverage I like most of all.
— Susan Young
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