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Who was the most important person you met at HBS? And why?

This is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck, and when my colleagues set up on Spangler Lawn during Spring Reunions and asked alumni this question, the answers ranged from life-changing professors to lifelong friends and from startup cofounders to soulmates.

In this episode of Skydeck, we share a selection of those responses.

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Lou Hughes (MBA 1973): Hi, I am Lou Hughes and I am in the class of 1973 in Section G. In terms of a person that was important to me, actually it was my roommate who was Per Bang-Jensen. And we were roommates the first year. I got married the second year, so he wasn't my roommate then. But Per has been absolutely my friend for the last 50 years—close friend.

And we've both had ups and downs with health, ups and downs with our respective careers, but we have been tight, tight for that entire period. He's an extraordinary man. And when I had once a very serious crisis, he was right there for me. And I will never forget him.

Dmitry Kozachenok (MBA 2013): Alright, so my name is Dmitry Kozachenok. I am HBS MBA 2013.

Marisa Kozachenok (MBA 2014): And I am Marisa Kozachenok, HBS 2014.

Dmitry: I was in my second year. I think I had six weeks before leaving campus, and I'd never met Marissa before. She was a year below, and we never overlapped through social circles. So I went to a dinner organized by a friend of mine who was in her class, and when I entered the room, I saw her. She was actually not facing me, and I remember thinking, oh, I should sit next to this girl—without having seen her face. And from that moment, we hit it off. And now we're married and we have three children.

Marisa: Yes, and I remember there was a big party that I had been looking forward to going to for weeks, and I completely missed the party because we met each other and we were talking and laughing all night. And then at the end there were probably 10 people going home and some people lived to the right and some people lived to the left. And I was thinking, I hope we're going in the same direction. And it just so happened everyone else went that way and me and [Dmitry] were living in the one direction. So we walked home together and yeah, it was really nice. And then the next day he reached out to me on Facebook and we took a walk across the bridge and he kept asking me out on dates. And now, yes, we have three children.

Dmitry: And as I reflect on my time at HBS, I think I'm very grateful to meeting all the friends. But I think the surprising gift, something that I didn't expect, is meeting my lifelong partner. So I feel very lucky.

Marisa: Me too.

Faith Kendrick Hindman (MBA 2003): My name is Faith Kendrick Hindman. I'm MBA 2003, Section D. The answer I'm gonna go with on this one is Professor Hank Reiling. So he taught tax law. I forget the name of the class now, but it was essentially taxation. Which you might not think would be like the pick for the most influential life person, right? You probably think LEAD or something like that. But Hank was so focused on encouraging us not to just think about the specific implications of tax policy and how to think about tax law in a business context, but how to think about our lives as human beings. And he found a very lovely way to interweave that into the material.

And the day that stands out for me was the parting day, as we were about to graduate, and he told a story of a former student of his who had been incorrectly identified as a Baker scholar. So the student knew he was not a Baker scholar because he had not received first honors both years, but he somehow got added to the list and included in the invitation to the dinner, and all this stuff.

And basically raised his hand and said, I did not earn this honor, and I want to have my name removed from the list. Hank's point to us was: think about yourself in 10 years, 20 years. This person calls you on the phone, are you gonna take that call? And the person became legendary because of the integrity and the guts that it took to do that. And I learned so much in his class about tax, but his parting thought for us was around who he hoped we would live into as people. I thought that was very special.

Michelle Shell (MBA 2003/DBA 2020): My name is Michelle Shell and my MBA degree was in 2003 and my DBA degree was in 2020. So there are two very important people. The first that I met in 2001 when I first came to campus was Professor Francis Frei. She was incredibly inspirational. One of my first professors during the analytics program starting as an MBA student. And I went to see her after a class and I told her that I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.

And 10 years after graduating, so I guess 12 years later, I came back to HBS and I sought out Professor Frei and I told her that I wanted to become a doctoral student. And I became her doctoral student and she became the chair of my dissertation committee when I completed my doctorate.

And I've had a very long history of admiring Professor Frei and doing the best I can to emulate her as a professor now, and to embody her, I don't know, zest for life, zest for teaching, and her interest in developing the whole person. And setting high standards and expecting her students to meet them.

And so the second person that I would say who's inspired me at HBS is Professor Ryan Buell, who was Professor Frei's doctoral student himself. I can't say enough about the kind of mentor he's been to me. The kind of inspiration, that roll-up-your-sleeves, can-do attitude—just eternal optimism. In my most darkest moments as a doctoral student, Professor Buell continued to encourage me, inspire me, and give me courage to pursue research that I felt was worthy. And so between the two of them, I just can't even say enough about the love that I have for HBS, because of them.

Rahul Mehendale (MBA 2003): I'm Rahul Mehendale. I'm class of 2003, Section C. Specifically, one person who had a great impact on me was one of my mentors, Clay Christensen. I was extremely fortunate at school to have his tutelage and extremely influenced by his theories around disruption. It wasn't just the theoretical business aspect that appealed to me, but more importantly, his personal lessons in terms of how he led his own life along the dimensions of focusing on family, focusing on health, while at the same time doing good for communities. I think that dramatically shaped my thought process and my mindset specifically. One of the lessons that comes to mind was Clay would always say "never outsource parenting." And that's one thing I'm proud to say that I have not done. So I've been in the pool for an hour every day for six years, teaching my kids to swim. Taught them a different language. But I did it and I'm incredibly proud of the bond that has resulted, thanks to his lessons.

Nicole Wee (MBA 2018): My name is Nicole Wee, HBS class of 2018, and the most important person that I met at HBS is my cofounder of my startup. We weren't in the same class. We didn't even overlap. We connected because she was looking for a product-oriented cofounder. And as a solo founder at the time, she was facing the realities of how difficult it is to start something alone.

So when she did her search, she's really good about not cold calling, and she found we had a mutual connection who also went to HBS, and our professor, Jeff Bussgang, who teaches the Launching Tech Ventures and Scaling Tech Ventures courses. So I got emails from those two folks asking to connect us at a time when I wasn't looking for a new job. I never thought I would start a startup and she convinced me to jump on the journey with her.

Nadine Dlodlo (MBA 2008): My name is Nadine Ngouabe Dlodlo. I am class of 2008. One faculty  that I connected very well with was Bill George. He taught the course about authentic leadership. And it was unlike any other course because we would speak about our lives, our journey, the future. We would also meet and have small group discussions. It was very uniquely formulated and enabled the student to really open up in a way that I have not seen in any other class at HBS.

He got us to write a lot—to reflect and to write. And I remember in one of those exercises I was writing about my life, my background, and how my path to HBS was not linear. I'm not American—you can tell from my accent. I was born and raised in Cameroon. I had a very unique experience of losing my father at a critical age when I was 15, about to enter high school and college. And then experiencing I would say displacement, because we, my family, experienced what is known in West Africa as "land grab," where all my father's assets were taken away from my mother. So to be coming from that experience and then reaching Harvard Business School is unique. I had to write about it and then write about my future. And the future that I saw for myself was informed by those experiences, which is why I wanted to work at the intersection of real estate, women's rights to wealth to property, and building community. So I was writing it back then and it turns out that's exactly what I'm doing right now.

Lee Koffler (MBA 2003): My name is Lee Koffler. I'm the HBS class of 2003, and the most important person that I met at HBS was my wife. Her name is KB Teo (MBA 2003). The story begins actually on the first day of HBS when I saw her. My wife, for those of you who don't know her, is a stunningly beautiful, brilliant woman. And from that first day I'm sad to say I could not focus on anything else other than this heaven-sent creature.
 That's actually not the story at all.

So what really happened is my wife was in fact a section mate of mine. The part about her being brilliant and beautiful is absolutely true. But when it began, we knew each other and we were friendly, but we really weren't super close. I'm pleased to say, and very glad to say, that over time we became closer and we got to know each other better at the end of our second year. 

We graduated in 2003. And then in 2005 I was on the West Coast, where she lives in San Francisco for work. And we started to spend time together again then. And what had been a nice friendship to begin with, blossomed into a very beautiful relationship. And so we were together for about eight years, until 2013 when we got married. And now we still live in the Bay Area and we have three children.

And there are so many wonderful things that I take out of HBS. I really did learn a lot. I was able to spend a lot of my time focusing on the actual classwork here and I felt it was a very deeply enriching experience.

I have many other friends who I connected with and will stay friends with for the rest of my life. And this particular relationship occupies a special place in my life because we spent so much time together and we've grown and learned so much together, and I think it was nice for us to have HBS as a common experience and for us to establish the beginning of our relationships and form some roots there. But it's been even better to be married and to grow from there and start our family and start a new journey as a couple and as a family and for our children. And this was the most important friendship and relationship that I made at HBS, even though there were many that were very wonderful and that I still have to this day. And I'm really glad that I went here because of it.

Skydeck is produced by the External Relations department at Harvard Business School and edited by Craig McDonald. It is available at iTunes and wherever you get your favorite podcasts. For more information or to find archived episodes, visit alumni.hbs.edu/skydeck.

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