The HBS Club of Houston marked its 75th anniversary on February 26 with a cocktail party at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston. More than 65 alumni attended the party and enjoyed drinks and appetizers, as well as door prizes and a surprise video greeting from HBS Dean Srikant Datar.

“We’ve been here since 1947, which is pretty amazing,” says the club’s president, Megan Stidman (MBA 1999). “It was a lot of fun to celebrate being here for 75 years—and being together in person after the pandemic.”

With a steadily growing membership of more than 320 alumni, Stidman says the club has been very active from the beginning. Current programs and special interest groups include an executive speakers’ series, a breakfast forum, a women’s leadership group, Alumni Angels, executive development, Alumni Forums, and Community Partners.

During the pandemic, the club managed to continue much of its programming virtually, which yielded a number of opportunities to connect with other clubs and host guest speakers from anywhere. “The virtual aspect is a blessing in disguise,” she says. “We were able to work with other alumni clubs around the world and had some fantastic speakers. We’ll continue with some virtual programming, since Houston is a very spread-out city and sometimes our members can’t make some events. It’s nice to have an alternative distribution channel.”

Some recent speakers featured in these virtual events included Moderna Therapeutics CEO Stefan Bancel (MBA 2000), JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (MBA 1982), and the president and CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy (MBA 1997).

“We’ve all worked together to be able to provide opportunities for all our alumni to stay connected to HBS, to continue to learn, and to serve our local communities,” Stidman says.

In his recorded greetings to the gathering, Dean Datar expressed his gratitude to alumni for being involved with the club and for “giving their time, talent, and treasure” over the years.

“He said it was a tremendous milestone, and he recognized that it took tireless leadership and volunteer commitment by alumni throughout our club’s history,” Stidman says. “He expressed his heartfelt admiration and appreciation for the club. Just the fact that he took the time to record something for us really meant a lot to people. We were very pleased, and everyone really enjoyed it.”

The HBS Asian American Alumni Association (HBS4A), in partnership with the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance (H4A), celebrated the Lunar New Year on February 26 with a 10-course luncheon in New York City’s Chinatown.

The gathering at the Peking Duck House was the association’s first in-person event since the pandemic started, with 22 alumni attending.

“We decided to go to Chinatown to support an Asian restaurant, since many have struggled due to COVID,” says the HBS4A co-president Nina Tao (MBA 1999), who organized the event with H4A’s Alex Lee, and cohosted with Cindy Young Montano (MBA 2005).

“There was no organized program, but we did go around the table and introduce ourselves,” says Tao. “We had authors, data scientists, hedge fund traders, some Executive Education alumni, someone who just applied to HBS, and another who was just accepted.”

Tao says the guests had a lively conversation about the importance of Asian representation across all industries, especially in light of recent anti-Asian attacks. “We talked about the need to be represented in all areas, not just government, but in our respective industries. We need to be heard,” she says, adding that she works with the HBS Club of New York (HBSNYC) on a project to help Chinese-speaking businesses.

There were also personal connections formed. One conversation led to the revelation that two of the guests, who did not know each other, were born in the same remote town in China. “That was a weird coincidence,” says Montano, adding that she is now reading a book written by someone she met at the event.

“It was a great feeling to be together for a couple of hours,” she says. “I met a lot of new people, and it was not only great to see everybody for the first time in a long time, but there was a strong sense of community. It was also good to just see people out and about in Chinatown. And the restaurant was busy. It felt like things are getting back to normal.”

Both Tao and Montano say feedback from the gathering has been very positive, and more in-person events are definitely in the works. “Everyone was really appreciative and wants to do more,” says Montano. “It’s always nice to meet alumni across the University and not just from our own business circles.”

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