Harvard Business School Announces 2025 Alumni Achievement Award Winners
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BOSTON—Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced that five distinguished graduates will receive the School’s highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award. The award is given annually to recognize alumni who are leaders in their fields and who exemplify the mission, highest standards, and values of the School. As role models of outstanding leadership for HBS’s graduating students, the recipients will be honored at the School’s Commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 29.
The 2025 Alumni Achievement Award Winners (L-R): Jeremy Grantham (MBA 1966), Deborah A. Farrington (MBA 1976), John Rice (MBA 1992), Bonnie R. Cohen (MBA 1967), and Vittorio Colao (MBA 1990).
The prestigious award is presented annually to alumni who have demonstrated exceptional professional achievements while upholding the highest standards of leadership and service. This year’s honorees have made significant contributions across government, finance, venture capital, telecommunications, and social enterprise.
The 2025 Alumni Achievement Award winners are:
“These five remarkable leaders live the mission and embody the values of Harvard Business School,” said HBS Dean Srikant Datar. “Their varied career paths and significant achievements demonstrate the power of business as a force for good, and they serve as inspiring role models for our community. We are proud to recognize their contributions and celebrate their impact on business and society.”
Honoring Extraordinary Contributions
Bonnie R. Cohen (MBA 1967) – A leader who brought expertise in finance to public service and the nonprofit sector A graduate of one of the earliest HBS classes to include women, Bonnie Cohen was initially reluctant to come to HBS. Her father, a Harvard MBA, noted that the business school had just started accepting women and encouraged her to apply. She agreed and was accepted but decided to enter Harvard’s Graduate School of Education instead.
“My father said, do me a favor, defer it for a year, see what you think. So, I went to the Ed School for a year, and he was right. It really wasn’t for me. So, I went off to business school,” said Cohen, who was one of 11 women in a class of more than 600 men.
Combining her early interest in education with the business and financial acumen she acquired at HBS, Cohen has dedicated her professional career to leadership across the government, finance, and nonprofit sectors. She was treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds as a new statute, ERISA, posed challenges and opportunities for such funds. She later served as a financial consultant to major institutions including Stanford University and Hewlett Packard and later became COO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Her career in government began in 1992 when she was appointed assistant secretary of the interior for policy, management, and budget, managing complex issues related to federal lands, conservation, and resource management. In 1997, she was later called upon by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to serve as undersecretary of state for management, effectively acting as the COO of the State Department until 2001. In this role, she dealt with matters including consular operations, diplomatic security, and buildings and grounds, issues that required complex balancing of diplomatic and security concerns, particularly following the 1998 terrorist bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Beyond her government work, Cohen has been deeply involved in civic projects, including leading a $200 million modernization effort for Washington DC’s public libraries, ensuring open and equitable access to information and community resources. Cohen stresses the importance of mentorship in her career. “I get great satisfaction in mentoring smart, ambitious young people,” she said. “I do it for me, honestly, more than for them. And it’s been very satisfying to see the careers that people have gone on to.”
Vittorio Colao (MBA 1990) – Transforming telecommunications and driving digital innovation Vittorio Colao is a visionary leader in the global telecommunications industry, renowned for his transformative leadership at Vodafone Group and his significant contributions to Europe’s digital infrastructure. Colao began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in media and telecom strategy. When he started to think about getting an MBA, he looked to his colleagues for inspiration.
“There was a partner at McKinsey, whom I really thought highly of, but also younger people who talked about HBS, the case method, the class discussion,” Colao commented. “It wasn’t what my children would do today, which would be to visit and evaluate. It was an instinctive decision based on my perception of the people who were there before, which says a lot about the importance of alumni to future students.”
He joined Omnitel Pronto Italia in 1996, rising to CEO before its acquisition by Vodafone, marking the start of a distinguished two-decade career at the telecom giant. As CEO of Vodafone Group (2008–2018), Colao expanded the company into one of the world’s largest telecommunications providers, overseeing major acquisitions, including the purchase of Cable & Wireless, and the landmark $130 billion sale of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless—one of the largest corporate deals in history. His leadership was characterized by a strong commitment to global connectivity, technological innovation, and corporate responsibility, particularly in expanding digital access across emerging markets.
Colao’s impact extended into public service when he was appointed chair of Italy’s COVID-19 committee and later, Italy’s minister for innovation, digital transition, and space (2021–2022) under Prime Minister Mario Draghi. In this role, he led the nation’s broadband expansion plan, increased digital public services, established the Italian National Cybersecurity Agency, and financed Italy’s first earth observation satellite constellation, strengthening the country’s technological and security capabilities.
“I encourage everybody at some point to consider some kind of public service,” recommended Colao. “If you have good people and flexibility in understanding everyone’s differences, then the impact can be massive. The one thing that is different between business and government is that in business you can selectively decide who you want to serve and who you don’t want to serve. When you are in a government role, you need to think that you are there to serve 100 percent of the population, providing access and support to all.”
Deborah A. Farrington (MBA 1976) – A trailblazer in venture capital and financial leadership Deborah A. Farrington was introduced to the world of finance at a very early age. Her father was an executive at Lehman Brothers and when she was 10 years old, he took her to the New York Stock Exchange for the first time. At Smith College, Farrington, an economics major, was asked to coordinate a recruiting visit from HBS. When the recruiter encouraged her to apply as well, she did, choosing business over a career in journalism, as she was also offered a job at the Washington Post.
“Those were two very interesting and quite frankly, very life-altering opportunities,” commented Farrington, noting that the Post broke the Watergate scandal not long after. “I never regretted my decision and never looked back. After I graduated, it was very clear to me that going to Harvard Business School was a gift.” Farrington would go on to a career as one of the most influential figures in venture capital, pioneering investments in enterprise software, fintech, and cloud computing. Her journey began with a strong foundation in finance, working at Merrill Lynch in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, where she developed a global perspective on investment banking. She later held a leadership role at Asian Oceanic Group before transitioning into venture capital.
In 1998, Farrington cofounded StarVest Partners LP, which became the largest majority woman-owned venture capital firm in the United States. She played a pivotal role in backing early-stage technology firms, including NetSuite, where she was an early investor when the company had just $100,000 in revenue. She served as lead director from NetSuite’s 2007 IPO to its $9.4 billion acquisition by Oracle in 2016.
Farrington would continue to shape the venture capital ecosystem, investing in high-growth companies such as Veracode, Fieldglass, and Insurance.com. She has also contributed to the industry through board leadership roles at major firms and institutions, including Smith College, NCR, Dayforce, and Cumulus Media.
Like other Alumni Achievement Award recipients, Farrington prioritizes mentorship, especially for young women. “I want to show them through my example that they can have a great career, they can be successful, they can have fun, and they can do it their way. Starting out with a major, market-leading company and learning their framework provides a stable base you can bring with you throughout your career.”
Jeremy Grantham (MBA 1966) – A pioneer in sustainable investing and environmental philanthropy Jeremy Grantham is a legendary investor and environmental advocate, widely regarded as one of the founding figures of modern asset allocation and commercial indexing. Raised in Doncaster, Yorkshire, he studied economics at Sheffield University, despite failing nearly every subject of his A-level exams. After a brief stint as a traveling salesman for his stepfather’s business, Grantham joined Royal Dutch Shell, working as an economist with a focus on Latin America until he enrolled at HBS. After he graduated, Grantham noted that the classmates who seemed to be having the most fun were those investing in the stock market. After a stint in consulting, he decided to follow their lead. “I got into the stock market very quickly. I discovered, yes, it was fun, but it was also curiously lacking in any rules, regulation, structure,” he said. “There were just kind of rules of thumb that had never been researched properly. There seemed to be no science, not even a semi-science, of how things should work. What should create value?”
In response, he co-founded Batterymarch Financial Management in 1969 before launching GMO in 1977, where he continues to serve as a long-term investment strategist. Over the course of his career, Grantham has identified market bubbles and investment trends with remarkable accuracy, predicting the 2000 tech bubble, the 2008 financial crisis, and climate-related economic risks.
In 1997, he founded the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, committing over $1 billion to climate research, sustainability, and green technology investments. Through his foundation, Grantham has been instrumental in funding climate change solutions, impact investing, and renewable energy innovation, aiming to drive systemic change in how capital markets address environmental challenges.
“We want to be making the most aggressive grants and investments. We don’t have to feel that we’re going to have the highest return, but we do have to feel everything we do is important. If it works, it will potentially change the game,” said Grantham of his foundation.
John Rice (MBA 1992) – Closing wealth gaps by fixing broken systems John Rice is a nationally recognized social entrepreneur, dedicating his career to fixing the broken systems that are critical to closing persistent wealth gaps in this country. Through MLT, he has been transforming the college-to-career economic mobility system and helping major employers implement practices that ensure all of their employees thrive. Rice calls his time at the HBS a “transformational experience.” And one day in the first semester of his second year, “I asked myself why there were so few other people of color who were having the kind of experience that I was having.” That question—and the urgent need for answers—would eventually lead Rice to found a nonprofit dedicated to advancing economic mobility for students and professionals and creating workplaces where everyone can thrive. The vision for Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), which Rice established more than 20 years ago and continues to lead as CEO, began as an independent study with HBS professor Greg Dees. Rice wrote an initial business plan before graduation, but “I knew I needed more seasoning and experience to build something in the social sector that was sustainable and high impact.” Rice spent his first few years after HBS at the Walt Disney Company and then moved to the National Basketball Association, where he was director of marketing for Latin America and, later, managing director of NBA Japan, all while refining his model for MLT on nights and weekends. “My don’t-try-this-at-home story was a parallel journey of building the foundational elements of MLT while also traveling around the world taking my best shot at becoming a senior executive,” Rice says. But he wasn’t willing to make the nonprofit his encore at the end of a long corporate career: “It was a here-and-now problem.”
Under his leadership, MLT works with 3,000 predominantly low- and moderate-income college students each year to help them achieve economic mobility and partners with more than 200 major companies on their talent strategies. MLT employs 300 people and has developed 1,000 senior leaders, with 15,000 alumni following in their footsteps across the corporate, nonprofit, and startup arenas. Ninety-eight percent of MLT‘s undergraduate fellows secure jobs with an average starting salary of $90,000, and 50 percent of the minority students at the top US business schools completed MLT’s MBA prep programs.
“I was fortunate enough to build so many friendships at HBS that ultimately have been critical to building MLT,” Rice said. For more than 50 years, the Alumni Achievement Awards have honored individuals whose strategic vision drives their work, whose creativity and innovation inspire those around them, whose character and values are exemplary, and whose leadership—in their careers and communities—is an example for others to follow. They truly are leaders who make a difference in the world.
More detailed information on each of the recipients can be found on the School's Alumni Achievement Awards website. |
Mark Cautela
mcautela+hbs.edu
617-495-5143
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.