Bob Ryan (MBA 1970), the first in his family to attend college, has come a long way from his Detroit roots. When the former chief financial officer (CFO) of Medtronic set up a fellowship fund at HBS, he wanted to pay tribute to those roots, so he established it in honor of his parents.

The Robert L. Ryan Fellowship has supported 18 students since Ryan launched the fellowship in 2004. Providing funding for future generations of MBA students is a fitting way for Ryan to recognize the value of education that his parents instilled in him. Ryan’s father completed fifth grade and then went to work in a factory and his mother, a homemaker, did not attend college because her father didn’t think education benefited women.

Thinking Bigger

In his parents, Ryan saw a deep determination to foster opportunities that they were denied because of their lack of education. After teaching her four-year-old how to read, Ryan’s mother visited his public kindergarten and realized he wouldn’t receive the level of learning he deserved, so she enrolled him in a local parochial school.

“I couldn’t have had better parents,” says Ryan who made them proud when he graduated from Wayne State University in his hometown and then went on to earn a master’s in electrical engineering at Cornell University. Ryan excelled at engineering, but it wasn’t his passion. “From my father, I had learned that it was important to make a good living, to have job security, and to find a career where I would be accepted,” says Ryan. “But I also wanted to do something that I loved.” Earning an MBA at HBS turned out to be a way to marry his skills and his passion, and the life-changing impact of that experience inspires him to give back.

Ryan found attending HBS to be one of the best decisions of his life. “I learned so much and made lifelong friends,” says Ryan, also giving the School credit for helping launch his career, which included working as a McKinsey consultant and a vice president at Citibank before spending a decade at Union Texas Petroleum, where he was promoted from treasurer to CFO and oversaw the company’s initial public offering. In 1993, he joined medical device maker Medtronic as senior vice president and CFO, a position he held for a dozen years and from which he retired in 2005.

Investing in Future Leaders

Ryan and his wife, Sharon, are proud parents of two adult children. They have devoted their philanthropy to supporting education, particularly for those from underserved backgrounds. Attending HBS’s MBA Fellowship Celebration is typically one of the highlights of his year. There, he meets the recipients of the need-based fellowship he established at the time of his 35th Reunion. Ryan’s fellowship honors the “vision, inspiration, and support” he received from his parents, Henry and Venicee Ryan.

Spending time with current students, he says, brings up two feelings. First, he is impressed by the extensive accomplishments and ambitious goals of today’s MBAs. Second, he feels proud to be associated with them and to be able to help them. “These young people are thinking in more mature ways than I did at their age. It took me a long time to figure out that I could enjoy work.” The world, he observes, has changed a lot in the 50 years since he graduated. Ryan is happy to see the current generation taking full advantage of the opportunities available.

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