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26 May 2011

Harvard Business School Celebrates 101st Commencement

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BOSTON—Harvard Business School (HBS) held its 101st Commencement exercises this afternoon. At the diploma ceremony, held on the green in front of Baker Library/Bloomberg Center, nine hundred and thirty-six students received their MBAs, while eight were awarded doctorates in business administration. In addition, in conjunction with the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, nine graduate students earned Ph.D. degrees. Three other doctoral candidates received degrees earlier in the academic year.

Dean Nitin Nohria address the Class of 2011 Photo: Jenny Frazier

The top five percent of the MBA Class of 2011 (50 graduates) graduated with high distinction as Baker Scholars (named after the School's initial benefactor, George F. Baker). Sixty-three earned their diplomas with distinction.

Yesterday's HBS Class Day ceremony featured a keynote address by Kathy Giusti (MBA 1985), founder and CEO of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC). Giusti's work in cancer research has changed the lives of many patients, including her own. A former executive at Merck, Gillette, and Searle, she was diagnosed with myeloma, a rare and incurable blood disease, in 1996. In 1998, she founded the MMRF to help break down barriers and speed the development of new treatments for myeloma patients.

Jacquie Sandberg was selected as the student speaker and offered this advice to her fellow classmates, "I will say that in my limited experience, it's really the good that matters, more than the well; it's the good that you remember. So, our task, at this auspicious time, is to figure out how are you going to do good today, how will you do good for the rest of your life?"

LtoR: Paul Marshall, Stephen Kaufman, Frances Frei, Anita Elberse, Deepak Malhotra. Photo: Russ Campbell

Also at the ceremony, the MBA Class of 2011 honored five faculty members for excellence in teaching: Professor Frances Frei and Senior Lecturer Stephen Kaufman (who both teach Technology and Operations Management in the first-year required curriculum) and Associate Professor Anita Elberse (who teaches Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries in the second-year elective curriculum), Associate Professor Deepak Malhotra (who teaches Negotiation in the second-year elective curriculum), and Professor Paul Marshall (who teaches Entrepreneurial Management in a Turnaround Environment in the second-year elective curriculum).

"Our faculty, students and alumni are called upon to help solve the world's most intractable problems because society at large believes that this institution is home to individuals of competence and character. So it has been. So it is. And so it must always be," remarked Dean Nitin Nohria.

About Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School, located on a 40-acre campus in Boston, was founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University. It is among the world's most trusted sources of management education and thought leadership. For more than a century, the School's faculty has combined a passion for teaching with rigorous research conducted alongside practitioners at world-leading organizations to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. Through a dynamic ecosystem of research, learning, and entrepreneurship that includes MBA, Doctoral, Executive Education, and Online programs, as well as numerous initiatives, centers, institutes, and labs, Harvard Business School fosters bold new ideas and collaborative learning networks that shape the future of business.

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