Navy veteran Dan Goldenberg (MBA 2003) was a week into life as a HBS student when the 9/11 attacks occurred, compelling him to join the Reserves just months after having left active duty. That defining moment inspired him to help others successfully reenter the working world after military service.

“Veterans often struggle to translate their time in the military into skills valued by civilian employers. The value is almost always there; they just need to communicate it more effectively,” says Goldenberg, executive director of the Call of Duty Endowment. The organization has raised and designated more than $28 million to nonprofit grantee partners, helping to place more than 50,000 vets in high-quality jobs since 2009.

At HBS, Goldenberg served as co-president of the Armed Forces Alumni Association (AFAA) and has since become part of a network of HBS Navy Reserve intelligence officers who have also risen to become commanding officers. “AFAA members were definitely my people at HBS,” he says.

Goldenberg’s path to the Endowment began when he saw his sailors returning from Afghanistan and Iraq struggle to find work. In 2013, he started working for the Endowment.

“Almost 90 percent of the vets placed through our grantees are in those same jobs six months later, and the salaries they get exceed the national median,” he says.

(Published August 2019)

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