Since 2016, Ashley Garrett and Alan “AJ” Jones (both MBA 1987), have served as HBS Fund Chairs. In that role, the couple founded and now leads the HBS Fund Council. The Bulletin asked Garrett and Jones to reflect on the past five years.

Bulletin: Why is the HBS Fund so important?

GARRETT: Gifts to the HBS Fund provide flexible funding that the School can use immediately to support core priorities like financial aid and faculty research, pursue new ideas and initiatives, and respond to unexpected opportunities and challenges. The pandemic is a perfect example. There’s no way the School could have responded so swiftly and effectively without the HBS Fund.

JONES: Some alumni wonder why the School needs their HBS Fund gifts each year. We spend a lot of our volunteer time educating alumni about the endowment. While HBS has been fortunate to receive generous endowed gifts, many people don’t realize that the endowment comes with restrictions. The School can’t just dip into it anytime or for any purpose, so we need the HBS Fund to support a broad range of critical activities.

How do you talk about giving to the HBS Fund?

JONES: When you give to HBS, you are actually giving through HBS. Whatever you’re passionate about—be it the environment, education, or the economy—HBS is likely having a direct and powerful impact on that issue through the work being done by faculty and students currently at the School or by alumni in their careers and communities.

What have been the high points of your tenure?

JONES: First, the opportunity to work with Dean Nitin Nohria. He is an exemplary leader and an amazing person who made growing the HBS Fund a priority over the past decade. We’re also proud that the HBS Fund will give the School’s next dean, Srikant Datar, a launchpad for his priorities as he continues to move the School forward.

GARRETT: Second, establishing the HBS Fund Council, which helps to educate alumni about the HBS Fund and inspires them to support it. We are fortunate to work with an incredible group of 24 alumni from a range of classes, regions, and perspectives who share our passion for HBS and annual giving. (View member directory)

Tell us more about the HBS Fund Council.

GARRETT: We advise HBS leadership on how best to communicate the importance and impact of the HBS Fund to alumni. Our priorities include reunion giving, recent graduates, international alumni, and the HBS Fund Investors Society. We ask our peers to join us in making leadership gifts to the HBS Fund and introduced a new fundraising volunteer role—Investors Society class agents—that focuses on increasing membership in the Society.

Why do you volunteer for HBS?

GARRETT: The School has been such a powerful force in both our lives, and we wanted to honor that as well as support the School’s mission and excellence.

JONES: We’re living at a time when the world faces no shortage of challenges, so the School's mission of educating leaders who make a positive difference resonates with us more powerfully than ever. The longer we have been out of HBS, the more impressed we are with the impact that the School and its alums have had all over the globe.

GARRETT: We admire and appreciate the School’s relentless pursuit of excellence. We're big fans of organizations that don’t rest on their laurels and are in a mode of continuous improvement even when they are at the top of their game.

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