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16News and insights for the MIT Sloan community

MIT Sloan

Beyond Cambridge

At work and school, students aim for a better world

MIT Sloan Spring 2013

Use your smart device to access MIT Sloan’s home page.

MIT SloanNews and insights for the MIT Sloan communityVol. 9, No. 3

dean David SchmittleinJohn C Head III Dean

senior associate dean, external relations and international programsKristina Gulick Schaefer

managing editorJanel Cunneen

editorial boardCatherine CanneyKristin LeClairKate O’Sullivan

production editorJennifer Montfort

designRobert Beerman, Onward Upward

contributors Amy MacMillan Bankson, Kara Baskin, Zach Church, Richard Dahl, Mikhail Glabets, L. Barry Hetherington, Rebecca Knight, Andrew Kubica, Kathryn M. O’Neill, Mimi Phan, White House Photo Office

proofreaderLinda Walsh

printingLane Press

MIT Sloan is published by the MIT Sloan Office of External Relations in partnership with the MIT Sloan Office of Communications. Read the MIT Sloan Alumni Magazine onlinemitsloan.mit.edu/alumni/publications/magazine/

Visit the MIT Sloan home pagemitsloan.mit.edu/

Change of addressMIT Sloan Office of External Relations 77 Massachusetts Avenue, E60-200Cambridge, MA 02139 Email: [email protected]

Contacts For subscription information, permissions, and letters to the editor, contact our editorial staff. Phone: 617-324-6014 Email: [email protected]

Social MediaFollow us on Twitter (@MITSloanAlumni) and on Facebook (/MITSloanAlumni) for news and updates from campus and our alumni around the world.

beyond cambridge: at work and school, students aim for a better world

Adding Management to Engineering for Social Impact:Lisa Tacoronte, SB ’10, MBA ’17

Student Startup Boosts Solar Energy and Equity:Stephanie Speirs, MBA ’17

Boston-Based Company Showcases Homeless Artists:Spencer Powers, MBA ’16

Can Socially Conscious Investing Save the World’s Fisheries?Javier Fuentes, MBA ’16

Improving Energy Access in Nigeria: Chinasa Emeghara, LGO ’17

A Connected Carry-On:Brian Chen, MBA ’16

Turning Garbage into Profit: Jungsup “Joseph” Lee, MBA ’16

Student Study Tours Travel to Cuba

The lobby of the Morris and Sophie Chang Building. Building E52 officially reopened after renovations in January. Updates include enhanced administrative spaces for MIT Sloan academic programs and student services, the MIT Department of Economics, and new MIT event space the Samberg Conference Center.

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2 Message to Our Alumni

3 Letter from the Dean

4 MIT Sloanscape

10 Innovation at Work

31 Class Notes

42 In Memoriam

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M E S S A G E T O O U R A L U M N I

From the Editordear alumni,

It is my pleasure to present to you the Spring 2016 edition of MIT Sloan. In this issue, we complete our three-part series of themed topics, focusing on the faculty, alumni, and students who are bringing their ideas to life around the world. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this series as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it.

Our goal was to deliver three magazine issues that showcased how our ingenious and industrious community applies its innovative ideas beyond the classroom. In the process, we came to know a number of MIT Sloan students who are taking a bold, service-oriented approach to their educations and careers. Their inspiring stories illustrate how MIT Sloan encourages and equips students to bring their ideas to the global marketplace.

There is a great deal to discover in these pages, from socially responsible investing applied to the fi shing industry to students tackling the challenge of providing global access to clean energy. In many diff erent ways, MIT Sloan students are improving the world by developing technologies and transforming industries that shape the global economy and address vital human needs.

As always, we welcome the opportunity to hear from our readers at [email protected]. What stories have inspired you? Where has the MIT Sloan experience taken you in your life and your work? Our hope is that each issue will be part of an ongoing global conversation between our alumni and friends.

We are delighted to have you as part of our readership. Have a wonderful spring!

Sincerely,

Janel CunneenDirector, Donor Relations and CommunicationsOffice of External Relations


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L E T T E R F R O M T H E D E A N

From the Editor

David SchmittleinJohn C Head III Dean

Dear Alumni and Friends, With another academic year nearing its fi nish, I am once again struck by the energy and inventive spirit of this year’s graduating class. As the class of 2016 prepares to take the transformative experience of their MIT Sloan education beyond the confi nes of campus, I’m confi dent that they, like the graduates before them, will fi nd myriad ways to improve the world.

As you’ll read in this edition of MIT Sloan, our students are taking on complex global challenges with zest and creativity. Lisa Tacoronte, SB ’10, MBA ’17, who co-founded Global Cycle Solutions with MIT classmate Jodie Wu, SB ’09 to distribute low-cost technology in Africa, is already thinking about new ideas for mission-driven startups. Stephanie Speirs, MBA ’17, who before coming to MIT Sloan served as a policy director at the National Security Council, has recently founded Solstice, a nonprofi t focused on bringing solar energy to underserved communities in the United States.

The students profi led in this issue are just a few of the exceptional people who have chosen to be at MIT Sloan. I am gratifi ed to see them gaining so much from their time here as students. I am grateful for the many ways they enrich our culture and add to the depth of perspectives in our community.

I hope that their stories will bring to mind your own MIT Sloan experience, and how you continue to apply that learning in your daily life. Perhaps the student’s stories will inspire you to join us for Reunion in June. We would love to welcome you back.

Sincerely,

MIT SloanSpring 2016

MIT Sloan

M I T S L O A N S C A P E

4 Winter 2015


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MIT Sloan Rings Closing Bell at Nasdaq New York City alumni gathered in Times Square on November 20, 2015, for the unique honor of ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. North American Executive Board member and alumna Martha Amram, PhD ’87, rang the bell on behalf of the School.

In her remarks, Amram noted that it was MIT Sloan professors Black, Scholes, and Merton who laid the foundation for modern option pricing, and that Nasdaq runs a thriving options market where millions of trades are priced based on the Black Scholes Merton Model.

On a more personal note, Amram commented on the impact the School has had on her life, giving her “…the practical tools and a rigorous way of thinking that not only has lasted my professional career, but also has powered some of my successes.”

“Only a very few get to ring the closing bell at a stock exchange of global importance, and only a very few get to attend MIT Sloan, a school that rightfully has global aspirations: to invent the future and improve the world,” Amram said.

MIT Sloanscape

Martha Amram, PhD ’87, and fellow North American Executive Board member Brad Peterson, SM ’89, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Nasdaq, celebrate MIT Sloan in Times Square.


MIT Sloan 5Winter 2015 5

Cross-Campus Research Teams Aim to Tackle Water and Food Safety Issues Three MIT Sloan faculty-related projects were recently funded by the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab (J-WAFS). Created to promote water and food research at MIT, J-WAFS spearheads efforts across MIT’s campus to promote the development of the next generation of technologies that can be applied to food safety, urban water supply, agriculture and irrigation, and watershed protection.

The research of the MIT Sloan team of Retsef Levi, J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Management, Professor of Operations Management; Tauhid Zaman, KDD Career Development Professor in Communications and Technology, Assistant Professor of Operations Management; and Yanchong (Karen) Zheng, Sloan School Career Development Professor, Assistant Professor of Management focuses on the supply chains that connect farmers with food manufacturers and the shipping supply chains that connect food manufacturers with consumers. Understanding how the structure and dynamics of these supply chains impact food security and safety-related risks is crucial to improving both food quality and safety. The findings aim to inform decisions related to the regulation of global supply chains, real-time risk management strategies to monitor food supply chains, and development of technical solutions to better track and trace food supply.

Senior Lecturer Chintan Vaishnav joins colleagues Rohit Karnik and John Hart from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering to address the deficiencies associated with water quality analysis test kits that provide limited accuracy and detection of chemical, physical, and microbial contaminants in developing countries. In Enabling Distributed Water Quality Management by Dry Sample Preservation and Centralized Analysis, they describe a widely deployable, cost-effective, and easy-to-use method for monitoring water quality, improving the safety of water supplies, and addressing public health concerns.

Valerie Karplus, Class of 1943 Career Development Professor and Assistant Professor of Global Economics and Management, together with Noelle Eckley Slein of MIT’s Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences department, will study the issue of monomethylmercury (MMHg) contamination in rice, a staple food for over half the global population. Focusing on China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of rice, the research will aim to identify sources of contamination and predict future changes in MMHg levels and identify policy recommendations and remediation strategies to protect the food safety of this staple grain.

The funding from J-WAFS will expand MIT’s impact by allowing for better coordination across campus between the many schools and departments seeking to make meaningful contributions to the critical global challenge of food and water safety.

V O L U N T E E R S P O T L I G H T

Name: Christopher Lowell

Program & Year: MBA 2006

Volunteer Position: MIT Mentor Program, 2006 Class Committee, Reunion Committee

Favorite MIT Sloan Memory: G-Lab in Rwanda was fantastic. The project we worked on was new and interesting, but the fun experiences we had on weekends were the true jewel. My teammates and I became friends for life as we trekked to see mountain gorillas and explored the countryside.

Why I Volunteer: I volunteer because it allows me to engage with both my classmates and MIT Sloan more often and in ways that I don’t expect. When I travel for work, I try to find time to visit classmates who now live in other parts of the world—this broad network of friends is one of the most important aspects of my life and one of the most valuable parts of my alumni relationship.

Favorite Volunteer Memory: Helping to organize the 5th Reunion was a blast! Seeing everyone—some who have changed, others who are their same wonderful selves—was great. I look forward to seeing everyone this coming June for our 10th Reunion!!!

Yanchong (Karen) Zheng, Retsef Levi, and Valerie Karplus.


MIT Sloan


6 Winter 2015


In general, do you think employers have become more enlightened in the last 10 to 15 years in taking work-life issues of employees into account?

I think if we look back a little bit longer—the last 30 years—more employers are paying attention to work-life concerns [today]. But at the same time, there have been other changes in the workforce that mean many employees are facing a kind of speed-up and less stability in their work hours. Professionals and managers are more likely to be in organizations that pay some attention to these issues, but workers in the service industry and retail and hospitality are actually being exposed to more challenges and face less predictable schedules, which create especially acute work-life problems.

Which areas of public policy regarding work-life issues in the workplace do you think need more attention?

The area of paid leave time is an area where we certainly need more public policies to provide some floor for employees who face their own illness, have the birth of a child, or are caring for a seriously ill relative themselves. We have a federal Family and Medical Leave Act, but it’s over 20 years old, it covers about 60 percent of U.S. workers, and it only provides unpaid leave. Obviously, the only people who can realistically take leave are those in higher-income families or those who happen to be working for slightly more generous employers. But there are so many who have no access to paid leave time.

What about day-to-day life in workplaces? Do you have thoughts about how that might be improved?

In the work-life arena, we need to think about how we can work in smart and effective ways that also benefit people’s personal lives. We shouldn’t be looking for solutions for particular groups of people because the long hours and crazy expectations for almost 24/7 availability affect everyone, not just parents or those caring for adult relatives. They also have real implications for health.

There are some exciting innovations looking at knowledge work and professional and managerial workers, but a lot of the most acute problems are those facing workers in hourly jobs. There’s important work to be done to figure out how we can make those jobs sustainable and fully incorporate those workers into our organizations.

faculty spotlight:

Unrealistic Leave: A Q&A with Erin L. Kelly

Outdated work-life policies are leaving service workers and hourly workers behind, professor says.

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Erin L. Kelly, a national expert on work-life policies and programs in the workplace, joined the MIT Sloan faculty and the Institute for Work & Employment Research last fall as a professor in work and organization studies.

Kelly comes from the University of Minnesota, where she was a professor and the director of the Life Course Center, and is continuing her affiliation with the Work, Family & Health Network, a national research organization.

How did you become interested in work-life issues in the workplace?

Early on, when I first got to graduate school, I thought I might be a sociologist of religion and study how congregations and other religious organizations dealt with issues around gender and diversity and inclusion. But I soon became more interested in workplaces, which of course affect many more people and have consequences for our lives in terms of income, security, and well-being.

I’ve always been interested in how organizations can be more diverse and inclusive and really recognize the contributions of all people involved in those organizations. At first, I probably identified as a gender-and-work scholar. And then the more I learned and thought about how workplaces function and how we can understand patterns of inequality and changes in those patterns, the more I became interested in what organizations were trying to do and whether they were achieving the goals they had set out for themselves in creating the kinds of workplaces we might envision.

“ In the work-life

arena, we need

to think about

how we can work

in smart and

effective ways

that also benefit

people’s personal

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Recently, the Mary Rowe Fund for Conflict Management was established through a gift from Jean-Jacques Degroof, SF ’93, PhD ’02, and his wife Valeria Degroof, to support Rowe’s research and develop case studies, exercises, simulations, and conferences exploring organizational conflict management.

Rowe, an adjunct professor at MIT Sloan, discussed gender equity and racial equity in organizations, microinequities and microaffirmations, and the importance of an organizational ombud, a role she held at MIT for 41 years.

What are effective ways to improve gender equity and racial equity in organizations?

I believe that no one initiative can be shown to work on its own. Instead there is a set of actions, taken together, that appears to make a measurable difference: top management backing and a senior champion for diversity and inclusion who never gives up; one-on-one recruitment of the best candidates; an explicit mentoring framework; peer networks and affinity groups; an integrated conflict management system; flexible hours and other work/family supports; and consistent training for managers.

You first discussed microinequities in 1973. More than 40 years later, have you found a solution or counter-balance to this type of discrimination?

There is a whole spectrum of microinequities. These injurious actions range from microaggressions that are hostile to inequities arising from unconscious bias, to those that arise from negligence, to those that come from just “not knowing what one needs to know about” other people—that is, from “innocent ignorance.”

Dealing with microinequities requires our understanding of what makes us all behave in little ways that injure and are unfair. I believe microaffirmations can help all of us to prevent and also remediate microinequities—including microaggressions.

You have said effective conflict management systems usually need a “zero barrier” office—an organizational ombud. How do ombuds serve organizations and their people?

I believe it is often hard for managers and employees to decide what to do about unacceptable behavior. In real life, many people are afraid to act much of the time. Many are afraid even to take note of exemplary behavior. It helps to talk with an ombud who offers

In 1973, Mary Rowe coined the term “microinequities” to identify the quiet, systematic, sometimes hostile, but often unintentional discrimination of being overlooked, ignored, excluded, or “dissed.” The term is an extension of microaggression theory.

The Quiet Discrimination of Microinequities: A Q&A with Adjunct Professor Mary Rowe

Q

and

nearly complete confidentiality. In addition, an ombud can offer sustained, unflagging attention to ever-recurring problems like racism, gender discrimination, abuse, and retaliation.

Ombuds also help to identify and communicate to managers about new problems and issues, and about exemplary innovations. Finally, it is actually difficult to integrate a conflict management system. Ombuds help to provide informal and largely invisible coordination for all the units in a conflict management system.

You have noted that management theories deal with employees, managers, supervisors, teams, and top leaders, but have offered fewer ideas about the roles of peers and bystanders. Are bystanders less important?

Bystanders are hugely important. Anyone who knows a teenager has noticed the importance of peer pressure, and research shows that almost all of us are very sensitive to the behavior of those around us. The role of responsible bystanders in dealing with unacceptable behavior and in finding exemplary behavior is just beginning to be explored.

Bystander research is very complicated. Maybe the short answer is that organizations need a strategic systems approach for bystanders, as in all other areas of management.

For more visit: mitsloan.mit.edu/iwer/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/bystanders.overview.org-comty.4.13.15.pdf


MIT Sloan


8 Winter 2015


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MIT Sloan Faculty and Alumni Honored at Thinkers50 AwardsSix faculty members and alumni were announced as winners at the biennial Thinkers50 Awards last fall. The event recognizes global leaders in management thinking through 10 individual awards, a 50-entry ranking, and inductees into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame.

Erik Brynjolfsson, PhD ’91, and Andrew McAfee, SB ’88, SB ’89, LFM ’90, shared the Digital Thinking Award, which “celebrates the thinker who has done the most to transform the digital revolution into useful management insights.” Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and Senior Lecturer Hal Gregersen was named to the 46th spot in the rankings, along with John Kotter, SB ’68, SM ’70, at 37th, and Senior Lecturer Doug Ready at 44th. Professor Emeritus Edgar Schein was named to the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. Specializing in organizational culture and careers, his books include the classic Organizational Culture and Leadership, now in its 4th edition, and Career Anchors.

In addition to the winners, five alumni and faculty members

at MIT Sloan were announced to the shortlist. Robin Chase, SM ’86, was nominated for both the Breakthrough Ideas Award for her book, Peers, Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism, and the Ideas into Practice Award, for which she was nominated along with the company she co-founded, Zipcar. Erica Dhawan, MBA ’12, co-author of Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, was nominated for the Radar Award honoring the next generation of business thinkers. Other finalists included Lee Newman, SM ’02; Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, PhD ’82; and Adjunct Associate Professor of Operations Management Zeynep Ton.

Alumnus Attempts World-Circling Solar Flight For Solar Impulse’s André Borschberg, “it’s a question of preparation meeting passion.”

Solar Impulse co-founder André Borschberg, SM ’83, has a grand hypothesis: If an airplane can fly around the world without fuel—using only solar energy held in its batteries—the sun’s power is effectively limitless. He hopes that such a historic flight could

change the future of energy consumption worldwide.“Just imagine halving the planet’s energy consumption while

saving natural resources in the process,” he said.Borschberg and co-founder Bertrand Piccard hope to

accomplish that with Solar Impulse, their solar aviation project based in Switzerland. The explorer-pilots expect to complete the first worldwide, high-altitude solar flight aboard their Solar Impulse 2. Borschberg completed the first oceanic leg of their worldwide flight last July, breaking solar aviation records for distance and duration. The plane suffered a battery malfunction, waylaying the craft in Hawaii for repairs. The flight was expected to resume in April.

The aircraft, constructed under Borschberg’s supervision, is powered only by the sun, with no fuel and no polluting emissions. The carbon-fiber aircraft is capable of flying at least 22,000 miles, in stages, over six months. It has roughly the wingspan of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, the weight of a typical car, and the power of

a small motorcycle. It’s the lightest aircraft of its kind.Borschberg’s team hopes to inspire others with this journey,

underpinning the sustainable mission with a sense of adventure. The purpose isn’t to transport passengers, said Borschberg, but to make a statement: The company is on the cutting edge of testing and developing clean technologies that could cut the world’s energy by half on a daily basis.

“This is a new paradigm in terms of energy use,” said Borschberg. “We have the capacity to be pioneers: We want to use this airplane as a symbol of what we can do with energy-efficient technologies and to promote clean tech solutions.”

Hal Gregersen, Erica Dhawan, MBA ’12, and Robin Chase, SM ’86


MIT Sloan 9Winter 2015 MIT Sloan 99MIT SloanSpring 2016

William (Bill) Porter, SF ’67 1928 – 2015

William (Bill) Porter, SF ’67, passed away on October 14, 2015, in his home in Kauai, Hawaii. His many accomplishments include founding E*TRADE, the first electronic stock brokerage that popularized the idea of online trading. Later, he and his partners developed ISE, the first electronic options exchange, changing the landscape of the financial industry.

For the MIT Sloan community, his presence is most acutely felt through the community spaces in E62 which are named the Porter Center. In 1999, Bill and his wife, Joan, donated the first and largest gift to E62. Their philanthropy is the reason the School’s faculty are united under one roof and why students are educated in state-of-the-art classrooms. Bill considered his philanthropy an investment, and he believed in the School, in the faculty and students, and in the contributions that the MIT Sloan community offers to the world. Dean Emeritus Richard Schmalensee remarked, “Bill was an inventor, a very successful serial entrepreneur, a serious philanthropist, and a wise counselor ... he will be missed and long remembered.”

During one of many visits to campus, Porter offered, “Almost every great leader has gone through bad times. Don’t turn away from the failures—look at them carefully. Take those lessons and persevere, fully confident that you know what you’re doing and that you’ll eventually succeed.”

In Memoriam

I N N O V A T I O N A T W O R K

10 MIT Sloan Spring 2016

By Rebecca Knight

Building Entrepreneurship at MIT:

New research measures the economic impact of MIT alumni-founded companies.

“They wanted a deeper understanding of MIT alumni-founded companies,” says Professor Roberts. “They wanted to know things like: How many companies in the world had roots at MIT? What was their overall revenue generation? How many jobs had those companies created? And they needed my help.”

Roberts, who holds four degrees from MIT—including a PhD in economics, was a natural port of call. He began researching entrepreneurial performance in the early 1960s and later, in 1991, he literally wrote the book on high-tech business formation and growth. What Bonvillian and Hockfield didn’t know, however, was that Roberts and Charles Eesley—his PhD student at the time—had conducted a survey of all MIT alumni only a few years earlier that explored the very questions they were asking.

“I said to Bill: ‘I have the data you’re looking for,’” recalls Roberts with a twinkly grin. “Give me three months and I’ll get you a report.’” That timetable, to put it mildly, stretched.

“We kept cutting the data and finding out new information,” says Roberts. “We looked at geographic spreads, industry distributions, and new businesses by MIT department. We looked at gender, age, and foreign students versus domestic students. There were so many angles to explore.”

The writing took longer than expected, too. “We didn’t want the report to be just a data dump,” he explains. “We thought it should offer

context, detail, and an interpretation of how MIT created such a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Three years and untold man-hours later, the Kauffman Foundation published Roberts and Eesley’s study, Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT. The report’s findings were a revelation to even the most die-hard Beavers: If the active companies founded by MIT graduates formed an independent nation, their revenues would be at least equivalent to the 17th-largest economy in the world (the Netherlands, for the record), and maybe even as big as the 11th-largest economy (Canada).

It was a pioneering study, and it helped underscore the critical role universities play in stimulating entrepreneurship. Since then, other schools, including Stanford, China’s Tsinghua University, and the Technion in Israel have conducted similar studies. Even Google now releases an annual report that details the economic impact of its search and advertising business.

“We have been copied by everyone under the sun,” says Roberts. “And it all began because of President Hockfield’s desire to communicate MIT’s impact to the world.”

ate last year, Roberts and his close colleague, Professor Fiona Murray, the Associate Dean for Innovation, aided by J. Daniel Kim, a PhD candidate at MIT Sloan, published an updated report based on a

similar alumni survey conducted in 2014. The team estimates that MIT alumni have been among the founders of at least 30,000 active companies.

Those enterprises employ 4.6 million people and generate annual global revenues of $1.9 trillion, roughly equivalent to the GDP of the world’s 10th-largest economy as of 2014 (for the record: Russia).

It all started in the spring of 2006, the day Ed Roberts—the founder of the MIT entrepreneurship center—got a visit from Bill Bonvillian, who directs the Institute’s Washington, D.C. office. Susan Hockfield had recently been named the sixteenth president of the School, and she and Bonvillian were writing a series of speeches highlighting MIT’s scientific and economic contributions.

11MIT SloanSpring 2016

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The new report arrives as entrepreneurship has emerged as a more alluring career choice for young people. And yet, there is also no question that aspiring entrepreneurs who graduated between 2004 and 2014 faced a more difficult economic climate. As the global economy entered a deep recession at the end of 2007, venture capital funding and investments declined. Even so, many more students and alumni were turning to entrepreneurship, seeing it as a more attractive job market when more traditional industries were suffering in the economy. The mood toward self-employment was changing; MIT Sloan’s MBA applicants were becoming heavily oriented toward entrepreneurship, and even applicants to MIT undergraduate programs were espousing strong desires to start their own companies.

“Even in spite of these challenges, we found that entrepreneurship among MIT alumni has been increasing at an impressive speed, outpacing trends that can be observed throughout the United States,” says Roberts. “The number of new companies being formed by alumni keeps going up, and it keeps going up pro-rata—that is, a larger percentage of the alumni every year are forming first companies, and they’re forming them at younger ages.”

For a long time, the typical MIT alumni entrepreneur formed his or her first company at around 38 years of age. During the Internet boom, the average age of new startup entrepreneurs

coming out of MIT was 27. (That dramatic age effect is a bubble—a direct reflection of the Internet bubble itself.) Based on the report, the average age of new entrepreneurs graduating in the late 1990s and the first decade of this century is around 30, but still falling.

The report also vividly illustrates MIT’s global entrepreneurial impact: Nearly a quarter of new firms were founded outside the United States. This finding mirrors the alumni population—some 30 percent of the School’s current undergraduate and graduate students are international.

Additionally, the report finds that many MIT alumni founders become “serial entrepreneurs.” Roughly 40 percent of alumni entrepreneurs have already launched two or more companies during their careers.

“These shifts occurred because entrepreneurship has become a force in the global economy; and while MIT was changed by that reality, it was also leading the charge,” says Roberts. “When I first joined the faculty in 1961, we offered only one course on entrepreneurship. Today, we have over 60 courses across the Institute taught by 10 tenure track faculty members joined by dozens of successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists over the years in unique collaborative teaching. We started the MIT Enterprise Forum in 1978, and in 1990 we founded the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, now called the Martin Trust Center. Today, we have numerous student clubs, the MIT $100K, the Clean Energy Prize, the IDEAS Global Challenge, the E&I Club, the VC/PE Club, and many more. Over the past 50 years, we built entrepreneurship at MIT.” Equally important, he says, is the collaborative spirit in which entrepreneurship activities have grown across MIT’s five schools.

“We’ve developed friendships and relationships across school, disciplinary, and professional boundaries within and beyond MIT. Those are the diverse experiences and relationships our students and alumni know will be of lasting value as they develop and build their ventures.”

“I believe the data,” he adds. “Do these two reports prove that what we’re doing here at MIT—the education we provide and the environment we cultivate—has directly caused this enormous contribution to society? Probably not. But give me another 50 years: We can prove it.” ...

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Roughly

40 percentof alumni entrepreneurs have already launched two or more companies during their careers.

* Entrepreneurship and Innovation at MIT: Continuing Global Growth and Impact; Edward B. Roberts, Fiona Murray, and J. Daniel Kim.


Adjunct Associate Professor of Operations Management Zeynep Ton saw a problem. Firms that did a good job getting product to market were having trouble selling that product. Why?

Ton sought answers to that question by researching firms across industries that defied convention. The difference? They saw their workers as a strategic investment, not an operating cost.

The resulting book, The Good Jobs Strategy, has spurred real change. After reading the book, Boston fast-food company Boloco announced a new approach to doing business.

INVENT THE FUTUREYour gift to the MIT Sloan Annual Fund makes research like Ton’s possible. It provides essential, flexible funding to ensure that our faculty can pursue groundbreaking and economy-changing research.

Help us invent the future. Invest in the MIT Sloan Annual Fund today: mitsloan.mit.edu/alumni/give

INNOVATION ISN’T A BUZZWORD IF YOU’RE ACTUALLY DOING IT.

*Source: boloco.com/blog/raising-the-wage-at-boloco/

“We believe that taking care of the right people will lead to the right level of profits.In 2016, Boloco will use the good jobs strategy to help us achieve all of our goals.”

– JOHN PEPPER, CEO & CO-FOUNDER*

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B L I S A T A C O R O N T E

www.linkedin.com/in/lisataco

Adding Management to Engineering for Social Impact

Engineer Lisa Tacoronte is pursuing an MBA and her next startup

By Amy MacMillan Bankson


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Tacoronte already co-founded one business, Global Cycle Solutions, with former D-Lab classmate Jodie Wu, SB ’09. The company, which Wu runs today, distributes low-cost technology, such as solar lanterns, to farmers in Africa.

Tacoronte and Wu both took the Development Ventures class, taught by Joost Bonsen and Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland. Tacoronte said it was the fi rst class where she met MIT Sloan students, and they inspired her ambitions.

“They were inquisitive and entrepreneurial. I was analytical and detailed, and they brought a lot of value to our team,” she said.

After graduating, Tacoronte worked in research and development for a medical robotics company. Later, she joined Bain & Company as a management consultant, but realized she needed an MBA to potentially create a business with social impact.

Today, Tacoronte participates in the Design Club at MIT Sloan and is co-president of Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development, where she helps to connect MIT Sloan students to social impact-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the developing world, as well as to the broader MIT community. She is also a co-director in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club. Although Tacoronte called her path to MIT Sloan “zigzagged,” she said she’s in the right place. She uses both her engineering and consulting skills daily.

“MIT really taught me how to think and how to work under pressure. MIT taught me there are no limits. You can do whatever you want to do … you just have to have the right passion, and seek the right skillset and network,” she said. ...

isa Tacoronte, SB ’10, MBA ’17, was an eyewitness to water shortages and power scarcity in the developing world when she attended MIT as an

undergraduate. The mechanical engineering major visited Peru

where she helped design an MIT D-Lab project—a pedal-powered washing machine built from bicycle parts. The project exemplifi ed the goals of D-Lab, which off ers courses that attack global poverty using math, science, engineering, social science, and management skills. The washing machine, which required no electricity, was simple to build. The D-Lab team members wrote a manual for the local residents to build more machines once they left.

Tacoronte was discouraged after she returned to the country a year later and found that no one had built another machine. She said it seemed as though the local community thought she and her team would build more for them.

“To me, that’s a big problem,” Tacoronte said. “How do you enable people to take ownership … and realize they can do a lot? I believe in empowering individuals to help themselves out of poverty by giving them income-generation opportunities.”

Tacoronte is now pursuing her MBA at MIT Sloan and hopes to eventually create a mission-driven startup.

“ ”I believe in empowering individuals to help themselves out of poverty by giving them income-generation opportunities.— L I S A T A C O R O N T E


L

Stephanie Speirs named 2015 Echoing Green Climate Fellow and Soros Fellow

16

Student Startup Boosts Solar Energy and Equity

B S O L S T I C E I N I T I A T I V E

www.solsticeinitiative.org/

@solarforgood

/solarforgood

[email protected]

By Kathryn M. O’Neill

MIT Sloan Spring 2016 Speirs is pictured meeting with President Obama during her time working at the National Security Council.

17

he co-founder of a solar energy startup, Stephanie Speirs, MBA ’17, fi rst realized the importance of energy to world aff airs while

serving as a policy director at the National Security Council at the White House.

“I read intelligence about people in Yemen lining up at gas stations because of fuel shortages, and I realized that an average Yemeni’s primary day-to-day concern was not counterterrorism—it was fi nding fuel for their own livelihoods,” said Speirs, whose White House job involved briefi ng the president on Arab Spring uprisings and policy concerns.

“I realized that at the heart of all these economic, political, and social problems was the need for basic power,” she said.

Speirs left Washington for Princeton University, where she earned her master’s degree in public aff airs. She also completed an internship in Pakistan focused on identifying renewable-energy investment opportunities for the Acumen Fund. Upon graduation, she was chosen from a pool of 1,200 candidates to become one of Acumen’s 12 Global Fellows for 2015 and spent the past year leading sales and marketing for a solar power company in India.

Speirs returned to the United States just in time to start at MIT Sloan, where she is one of 30 recipients of the 2015 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. The Soros Fellowships provide up to $90,000 in tuition and stipend support for immigrants and children of immigrants to attend graduate school. She was also recently selected as a candidate for a 2015 Echoing Green Climate Fellowship, which off ers seed funding and resources to emerging social innovators.

“ ”

Speirs said she chose MIT Sloan because she was attracted to its collaborative environment and saw it as the ideal place to hone the business skills she needed to ensure the success of her new venture, the Solstice Initiative, a nonprofi t she co-founded in 2014 to provide community solar power for underserved Americans. Working with developers and community organizations, Solstice enables individuals without their own rooftops, such as renters or condo owners, to buy shares of solar projects and reap the benefi ts on their utility bills. Sandhya Murali, MBA ’15, and a recipient of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Certifi cate, serves as Solstice’s chief fi nancial offi cer.

Solstice completed two pilot programs in 2015, and this year has secured contracts with four solar developers and a pipeline of six additional projects in Massachusetts, including one that will be exclusively serving low-to-moderate income individuals. This past December, Solstice incorporated a for-profi t entity that will house a proprietary digital platform that manages community solar customers and provides an online marketplace for community solar shares. The momentum of the past year led to selection for the Echoing Green Climate fellowship and the Global Good Fund fellowship.

The objective of Solstice, Speirs said, is to make energy more accessible and aff ordable for all Americans. Social equity is a motivator for Speirs, who said she hopes to benefi t people like her mother, who worked three jobs to raise three children alone.

“The [Soros] fellowship honors the sacrifi ces immigrants go through,” said Speirs, whose mother emigrated from South Korea. “We grew up on food stamps, and my mother went hungry so her kids could eat. She pushed education as the way out of poverty, and she was right. I hope to spend my life working to ensure other families have the same opportunities I’ve been fortunate to receive.”

Speirs said she hopes to learn from MIT’s resources to help build the Solstice Initiative. “We’ve come a long way— but the bigger our organization gets and the more complex our decision-making processes become, the more we need advanced help,” she said. ...


T

The objective of Solstice is to make energy more accessible and affordable for all Americans.— S T E P H A N I E S P E I R S

18

MBA student and his sister are off ering homeless artists a sales channel and a share of profi ts

B A R T L I F T I N G

www.artlifting.com

/artlifting

artlifting/

@ArtLifting

artlifting/

By Amy MacMillan Bankson

Boston-Based Company Showcases Homeless Artists


19

ozens of homeless and disabled artists are selling their art for a profit thanks to a pair of Boston-based siblings.

Spencer Powers, MBA ’16, and his sister, Liz Powers, created the benefit corporation, ArtLifting, after Liz was inspired by working with homeless artists over the past nine years. The two realized they were onto something when they began to see how encouraged the artists were by earning money and being treated respectfully, Spencer said. In just a year, five formerly homeless artists have gained housing, in part because they sold artwork through ArtLifting, he added.

Today, ArtLifting is working with more than 70 artists in eight cities, and the Powers siblings plan to expand. A recent seed round raised $1.3 million and online sales of prints, posters, accessories, and original art pieces are brisk. A pop-up gallery is located at CambridgeSide Galleria in East Cambridge.

After contemplating the business for several months, the Powers siblings started ArtLifting in December 2013 with just $4,000 of their own savings. Both had full-time jobs, and built the business during nights and weekends. Business was slow at first.

“It was absolutely crickets in terms of our web traffic,” Spencer remembered.

Publicity came in the way of a Boston Globe article that highlighted the new venture. “It’s very hard to get known on the Internet, and that was a surprise,” Spencer said. “We owe all of it to the first four artists who entrusted us to sell their art.” The Powers siblings were able to bootstrap from this $4,000 investment to revenue in the six figures.

Before he came to MIT Sloan, Spencer read two books that inspired him: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries and Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie. Today, both Mycoskie and Ries are investors in ArtLifting.

Both Powers siblings were admitted to MIT Sloan in 2014. Spencer chose to attend, while Liz continued working on the new business full time.

At MIT Sloan, Martin Trust Center Managing Director Bill Aulet’s New Enterprises class motivated Spencer. “The best advice I got was through Bill’s class,” Spencer said. “Going through his class made me realize, ‘Oh, we skipped that step.’ Now, with a more formal understanding of entrepreneurship … I think we are in a much better position.”

“Artists are treated professionally. Everything they get is something they earned themselves,” Spencer said.

As it expands to new cities, ArtLifting connects with shelters first. Shelter workers and art therapists help ArtLifting identify potential artists, and then the company fosters a relationship with each artist.

The company works with individuals in art programs in both shelters and disability centers. “We are basically here to help artists who have some sort of disadvantage, whether it be homelessness or a physical or mental disability,” Spencer said.

“We are very proud to be a for-profit, benefit corporation,” Liz said. “We work like a normal gallery and split the profit. Fifty-five percent of our profit goes to the artist, and the other 45 percent is used to grow ArtLifting and expand our impact.”

“We purposefully built a model so that for every piece of artwork sold, our artists get money and we get money. I think it’s a great trend that’s appearing now … businesses don’t need to be agnostic to have social impact. They can build it into their business model,” Spencer said. ...

MBA student and his sister are offering homeless artists a sales channel and a share of profits Today, ArtLifting is working with more

than 70 artists in eight cities, and the Powers siblings plan to expand.


D

20

By Amy MacMillan Bankson MBA student helps design detailed blueprints addressing fi sheries management

Can Socially Conscious Investing Save the World’s Fisheries?

B J A V I E R F U E N T E S

investinvibrantoceans.org


21

Prior to S-Lab and his internship at Encourage Capital, Fuentes had never given much thought to the world’s fi sh stocks. His fi rst summer internship in 2014 at California Environmental Associates in San Francisco gave him the chance to research the problem in depth, but he quickly realized that many of the proposed business model solutions were tough to implement on a large scale.

“Strategies that focus only on specifi c communities or limited geographical areas usually struggle to make an impact on the sea,” Fuentes said.

RESHAPING THE SUPPLY CHAINIn his internship at Encourage Capital, Fuentes studied fi sheries in Chile. Chilean fi shermen need to fi nd an alternative to the common hake, a cod-like fi sh, which is declining, Fuentes said. The team proposed to local fi shermen that they try to commercialize squid, which eats hake. Squid can be shipped abroad to places such as Asia.

In order to trace the harvesting, the team also proposed to use state-of-the-art technology to track the boats, control fi shing practices, and follow the production from sea to retailers.

By looking at the challenges to individual fi sh species, “we started to understand that a strategy to protect shellfi sh is diff erent from a strategy to harvest tuna in a sustainable way,” Fuentes said.

If private investors follow Encourage Capital’s blueprints, depleted stock can potentially recover, albeit at diff erent rates, Fuentes said. The hake’s reproduction cycle is four to fi ve years; and if improvements are made to fi shing practices, stocks could recover in as few as eight years, he said. ...

orty percent of the world’s fi sheries are overfi shed, according to Encourage Capital, a New York-based investment management fi rm that recently

released a series of detailed investment blueprints designed to address the issue.

Javier Fuentes, MBA ’16, worked at Encourage Capital as an intern last summer and was part of the team that wrote “Investing for Sustainable Global Fisheries,” with support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Vibrant Oceans Initiative and the Rockefeller Foundation. The blueprints are free to nonprofi t companies and investors and propose strategies for both generating fi nancial returns and promoting sustainable fi shing practices.

According to Encourage Capital, 3 billion people around the world rely on fi sh for food or income, but the exploitation of the world’s fi sh stocks poses a serious threat to the industry. Fisheries mismanagement, which includes overharvesting and waste in the supply chain, translates into industry losses of approximately $50 billion a year, Fuentes said. Encourage Capital spent more than two years examining productivity, supply chain dynamics, and 25 fi sh species in Chile, Brazil, and the Philippines.

Fuentes, who will also earn a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in a three-year dual-degree program, said impact-focused investors can make a meaningful diff erence in the industry.

AN AWAKENING TO SUSTAINABILITYA native of Chile, Fuentes, who has both an engineering and fi nance background, enrolled in MIT Sloan’s Sustainable Business Lab in 2013. He said the action learning course, as well as some of the other courses he took through the Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan, exposed him to the extent of social and environmental problems that surround business practices.

“It’s not just pollution or climate change … with fi sheries, we are in very bad shape. In S-Lab, we learn to navigate problems like this,” Fuentes said.

3 billion people around the world rely on fish for food or income, but the exploitation of the world’s fish stocks poses a serious threat to the industry.


F

LGO student builds energy business to increase solar power in her home country

22

Improving Energy Access in Nigeria

B C H I N A S A E M E G H A R A

www.linkedin.com/in/chinasaemeghara



23“ ”I want to create true energy access. There’s huge demand but not enough supply.— C H I N A S A E M E G H A R A

Emeghara said entrepreneurship was not part of her original career plan, but MIT changed her thinking. “You meet the right people and start the conversation, and the next thing you know you’re sitting on an idea that can have “a lot of impact. A lot of that happens at MIT,” she said.

Emeghara discovered her entrepreneurship opportunity through Energy Ventures, a project-based course designed to help students launch new businesses in the energy sector. The class presented students with a “range of project options, and Emeghara chose to address energy in Africa. She teamed up with Milton Jones, MBA ’16, and Onyeka Obasi, SF ’16, and together the three have been developing a business that would replace Nigeria’s diesel generators with solar electricity systems that are more technologically advanced than anything currently available there.

“We have contacts to key stakeholders in [Nigeria], and we have great technology here, so we’re trying to bring those together,” Emeghara said, noting that the team is focusing on developing a novel business model, rather than on new technology. “I want to create true energy access. There’s huge demand but not enough supply.”

Emeghara is also working on a reverse osmosis desalination project for Haiti in another class, Global Engineering. But while that project will wrap up at the end of the semester, Emeghara said she plans to continue the work started in Energy Ventures even after the class concludes. “I’m fully committed to seeing where this goes. I want to try to build this business,” she said. ...


s a child in Nigeria, Chinasa Emeghara, LGO ’17, saw fi rsthand how diffi cult it is to live without reliable electricity. Today, she is addressing this

global challenge directly by starting a solar energy company. “[In Nigeria], businesses have to shut down at 4 p.m.

because there’s no electricity, or they have to pay for generators, which are expensive and ineffi cient,” said Emeghara. “There were many occasions when I couldn’t study after school because the lights were out.”

Emeghara moved to Texas when she was 10 years old and earned her bachelor of science degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She then spent four years as a consultant for Accenture working in the energy sector.

Drawn to MIT by her interest in operations, she enrolled in MIT’s Leaders for Global Operations, a dual-degree program off ered by MIT Sloan and the MIT School of Engineering. Emeghara will earn both an MBA and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

A

24

B B L U E S M A R T

bluesmart.com

@bluesmart

@bluesmart

MBA student’s company has raised $1.7 million for its smart luggage


A Connected Carry-On


25

locked and unlocked from a cellphone using a patent-pending locking system approved for use by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. It carries a battery capable of charging a smartphone six times. And it weighs just 8.5 pounds—about a pound more than its closest competitors, according to Chen.

“The market was hungry for something like this,” said Chen, who heads up business operations for Bluesmart while his four co-founders handle such tasks as design, engineering, and business development. “Travelers are very passionate about what luggage they use, and there hadn’t been much in the way of new features.”

Bluesmart keeps Chen busy, but when he was accepted into MIT Sloan’s MBA program, he decided—after consulting with his partners—that the opportunity was worth pursuing. “I wanted to spend time thinking hard and intensely about my leadership style,” he said. “Also, I wanted to get the training to think about how the best organizations work. That’s something I didn’t feel I had from working at startups.”

MIT Sloan has not disappointed him. “The MIT community has been really valuable for me and for Bluesmart, from meeting with investors to fellow students with expertise we needed, to some of the clubs and treks I have done,” Chen said.

For example, as a member of the MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club, this fall Chen was able to join the Silicon Valley Pitch Trek, which gave him the chance to meet top venture capitalists. “Sloan has really accelerated my network,” he said.

Chen also praised the coursework at MIT Sloan. He credited his Organizational Processes class with helping him to think about how to structure Bluesmart as it grows as an organization, and he said Introduction to Operations Management has provided insights into supply chain issues. “That’s been really helpful for me because it directly relates to my role when it comes to strategy, fulfilling orders, and acquiring users,” he said.

In 2015, Bluesmart shipped 15,000 units and has grown to a team of 45 employees.

Now that manufacturing is underway, the co-founders (Chen, Tomi Pierucci, Martin Diz, Alejo Verlini, and Diego Saez Gil) will consider expanding the company’s offerings and continuing their focus on innovation and establishing themselves as market leaders in the smart travel product category. The goal, Chen said, is “to build out a real business and company around the vision that we’ve laid out. That includes different products and a real brand that customers can trust.” ...

rian Chen, MBA ’16, knows a thing or two about travel. Born in Colorado, he moved to Taiwan at age 11, attended college in Pennsylvania, and has

worked in Ecuador, San Francisco, and New York. Today, he is putting that experience to work as the co-founder of Bluesmart, a new high-tech luggage company.

“Luggage can be the source of a lot of headaches for today’s business travelers,” said Chen, noting that an expensive digital video camera was stolen out of his checked luggage last year on the way home from Argentina.

Bluesmart’s carry-on suitcase comes with location tracking, a digitally controlled lock, a built-in scale, a proximity sensor, and a battery for charging electronic devices. “This is a suitcase where all the cool features are integrated,” Chen said. “People love the idea that they don’t have to walk around the airport looking for an outlet to charge their phone.”

Founded in 2013, Bluesmart grew out of a conversation two Argentinian entrepreneurs had over coffee one day in New York. Chen knew one of the two from working at Endeavor, a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and he soon found himself on a team of five working to develop a smarter suitcase. “We all jumped on the idea,” Chen said.

Bluesmart launched a crowdfunding effort in October 2014 through Indiegogo, and the company has raised over $2 million. “Crowdfunding let us basically validate our idea and validate that customers want our products before we put a lot of money into the product itself,” he said.

The early success of their crowdfunding efforts attracted the attention of Y Combinator, which provides seed funding for companies that they identify as building a product impressive enough to help raise money on a larger scale. With Y Combinator’s backing, Bluesmart was able to raise their funding to $11.5 million.

The company has built working prototypes and tested its suitcase at airports around the world to ensure it passes smoothly through security. The carry-on can be


B

Bluesmart’s connected carry-on.

26

Turning Garbage into Profit

By Kathryn M. O’Neill MBA student’s startup to recycle waste in Nigeria


27

Lee also found two business partners at MIT: SunMin Hwang, MArch ’14, who provided system design expertise, and Peter Kang, SM ’10, PhD ’14, who developed the water fi ltration technology that diff erentiates J-Squared in the crowded recycling market.

“Water quality in Nigeria is not that great,” Lee said, noting that using cleaner water will help J-Squared manufacture cleaner plastic products. “So I thought, let’s work with an MIT person who specializes in water fi ltration. That’s one area where I needed help.”

Lee took a leave of absence from MIT Sloan to spend a year building a partnership with a Nigerian plastics distribution company. He returned to campus this fall.

Lee continues working to establish a market for J-Squared’s product, a base-chemical additive for plastics production that is made of recycled materials.

“The recycled material is of very high quality. That’s where my company diff erentiates itself,” he said.

Currently, Lee imports the additive into Nigeria monthly, but his goal is to establish a manufacturing plant in the country in 2016. He then plans to source waste from 200 local garbage collection facilities. Ultimately, he said, he hopes to improve Nigeria’s whole waste management system and create sustainable jobs for local Nigerians. ...

ungsup “Joseph” Lee, MBA ’16, was traveling in Nigeria as a sales manager for LG Chem in 2008 when he looked at the trash-covered streets and

saw a business opportunity. “People always think this is dirty waste, but dirty

waste can be gold for a business,” said Lee, who this year founded J-Squared, a company that recycles plastic waste into chemical additives used in the production of new plastic products.

For several years, Lee’s idea had remained dormant as he went to work as a project manager for POSCO, a major Korean steel company. There, he participated in a number of steel mill projects in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine, gaining business development skills and deepening his desire to become an entrepreneur.

Lee wanted to learn more before starting his own company. “I didn’t have any idea how to develop and execute a business. I was a sales and marketing guy,” he said. “That’s why I applied to MIT Sloan. I thought of this as a stepping stone to becoming an entrepreneur.”

MIT has proven to be a supportive environment. Funding and fellowships allowed Lee to travel to Africa to lay the groundwork for his business. He received an MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship Fellowship (2012–2014), an MIT Public Service Center Fellowship (2013), and an MIT Sloan Social Impact Fellowship (2013).

“ ”I thought of [applying to MIT Sloan] as a stepping stone to becoming an entrepreneur. — J U N G S U P “ J O S E P H ” L E E


J

28

By Amy MacMillan Bankson Two MIT Sloan student study tours explore Cuba’s industries and developing economy

Student Study Tours Travel to Cuba


29

also develop a curriculum to eff ectively prepare their peers to maximize the educational value of this experience,” Shields said.

Cuba study tour students, working in small groups, devised research questions they investigated while on location. The topics ranged from entrepreneurship on the island to the rum and cigar industries, baseball, and immigration patterns and policy. Once back on campus, each student submitted a paper on their fi ndings.

BUSINESS AND PERSONALThe seminar class kicked off February 8 with a guest talk by Victor Lanio, Sr., the father of second-year MBA student Victor Lanio who helped organize the tour. Lanio’s family left the island in 1962, and he was the fi rst in his family of three generations of Cuban-Americans to visit the island since then.

“My family has been waiting for the Castro regime to end for nearly 60 years to return to the island,” Lanio said. “In addition to learning more about my family history and sharing it with classmates, I viewed this trip as kind of like a scouting mission for what I hope turns into a sort of family reunion on the island.”

“Organizing this study tour and having my dad as a guest speaker has been the highlight of my time here at Sloan,” Lanio said.

Other class sessions provided historical and political context for the trip. The students heard from guest speakers such as Patrick Houlihan, Major League Baseball’s vice president and deputy general counsel for labor relations, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, a director at 14ymedio, one of the fi rst independent Cuban media companies.

“From my perspective, the United States and Cuba are at an infl ection point. The relationship is undergoing monumental and transformational change. To gain a fi rsthand perspective on how the economy and culture of Cuba are adjusting to these new relations will be a “once-in-a-lifetime experience for our students,” Shields said....

tudents participating in one of MIT Sloan’s fi rst trips to explore Cuba left in March for an eight-day trip, during which they explored the business

and cultural implications of renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.

“The United States and Cuba: Evolving Economies” is one of two Cuba study tours this spring. MIT Sloan lecturer Ben Shields and MBA program director Maura Herson accompanied 24 students on the tour, which began in Miami with a visit to Little Havana.

MIT Sloan Professor Renée Richardson Gosline traveled with another group of students on a study tour to Cuba, as well as Trinidad and Tobago. This group of 28 students compared the development and behavior of the island nations.

The study tours coincided with President Obama’s visit to Cuba as part of U.S. eff orts to normalize relations between the two countries. Obama was the fi rst sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928. The half-century trade embargo against Cuba is still in eff ect, but the thaw in relations has eased some travel restrictions.

LEADERSHIP IN ACTIONMIT Sloan study tours are a way for students to earn course credit in an area of interest while playing a leadership role in planning the tour. The tour’s student organizing team works with faculty and staff mentors to determine the curriculum and an itinerary. Following several weeks of classroom sessions on campus, approximately 25 students travel to the chosen region during spring break each year. The Student Life Offi ce approves several study tours annually and subsidizes a portion of them. Other study tours this year include trips to New Zealand, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast, Southeast Asia, and the United Kingdom.

“Study tours are an excellent opportunity for our student leadership teams to not only work on logistics, but

“ ”… the United States and Cuba are at an inflection point. The relationship is undergoing monumental and transformational change. — B E N S H I E L D S , L E C T U R E R , M A N A G E R I A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N


S

| 1956 | 1961 | 1966 | 1971 | 1976 | 1981 | 1986 | 1991 | 1996 | 2001 | 2006 | 2011 | 2015 |

Reunion2016

June 2–5

It’s almost here!Reunion 2016: June 2 – 5Reconnect with friends, faculty, and the MIT Sloan community and enjoy a weekend fi lled with social activities, networking opportunities, and special classroom sessions with MIT Sloan faculty.

Registration deadline: May 26

For more information—and to register—visit: mitsloan.mit.edu/alumni/events/reunion-2016/

#SloanieReunion

MIT Sloan Fall 2014

C L A S S N O T E S

31

I N M E M O R I A M

In MemoriamWith deep sadness, the MIT Sloan School of Management reports the recent passing of fellow alumni.

1940 Mr. Ralph N. Thompson, SB May 8, 2015

1943 Mr. George W. Bierly, SB July 6, 2015 Mr. Calvin B. Dunwoody, SB July 22, 2015

1944 Mr. Alfred H. Heckel, BO June 23, 2015

1946 Mr. Jose M. Bosch Aymerich, SM February 16, 2015

1947 Mr. Edgar L. Pinel, Jr., SB September 15, 2015

1948 Mr. John S. Adams, SB October 12, 2015 Mr. Vernon B. Baker, SM September 28, 2015 Mr. John W. Hawkins, SB May 24, 2015 Mr. Judge McLaughlin, SB May 1, 2015 Mr. Thron Riggs, SM June 27, 2015

1949 Mr. Milton Fowler, SB April 10, 2015 Mr. Henry S. Rowen, SB November 12, 2015

1950 Mr. Carl F. Mellin, Jr., SB October 4, 2015

1951 Mr. Martin N. Greenfield, SB June 9, 2015 Mr. Richard A. Poirier, SB October 4, 2015

1953 Mr. Louis P. Best, Jr., SB May 9, 2015 Mr. Philip W. Bianchi, SB April 20, 2015 Mr. Richard W. Watson, SB May 23, 2015

1954 Mr. Daniel J. Hamilton, SB April 11, 2015 Mr. Winston R. Hindle, Jr., SM September 1, 2015

1955 Mr. George Bromfield, SB June 1, 2015 Mr. Jack C. Scarborough, SM July 7, 2015 Mr. Ira J. Uslander, SB July 23, 2015

1956 Mr. George Zoltan Imrey, SB July 13, 2015

1957 Dr. William R. Alcorn, SB September 22, 2015 Mr. Philip A. Untersee, SM September 28, 2015 Mr. Edgar L. Vaughn, BO June 30, 2015

1958 Mr. Raymond M. Philip, SM September 8, 2015 Mr. Robert R. Rohs, SM June 22, 2015

1959 Mr. Frank P. Elwood, SB June 9, 2015 Mr. Harry S. Scherzer, SB September 1, 2015 Dr. Stuart G. Younkin, SE April 11, 2015

1960 Mr. Cordes G. Seabrook, Jr., SM May 27, 2015

1961 Mr. Maurice J. Laurier, SM October 9, 2015 Mr. Arnold M. Singer, SM June 27, 2015

1962 Mr. Martin F. Casey, Jr., SB September 15, 2015 Mr. Richard D. Spence, SE April 7, 2015

1963 Mr. Tomas Rodriguez, SM March 9, 2015

As of December 31, 2015

1964 Mr. James R. Fitzgerald, SM August 14, 2015

1965 Mr. James E. Mahoney, DO May 21, 2015

1966 Mr. Robert W. Bishop, SM October 16, 2015 Mr. Clifford J. Shirley, SM April 12, 2015

1967 Mr. William A. Porter, SM October 14, 2015

1969 Colonel Donald R. Griesmer, SM March 3, 2015 Mr. E. George Hakula, SE June 17, 2015

1970 Mr. Kenneth M. Bracy, SB June 12, 2015 Mr. David L. Chapman, SM May 1, 2015 Mr. Robert S. Keller, BO July 7, 2015 Mr. Robert H. Rollins II, SM April 8, 2015

1971 Mr. John E. Heye, SM July 3, 2015 Mr. Robin Monro-Davies, SM September 19, 2015

1973 Mr. Robert L. Sutherland, SM June 26, 2015 Mr. Randy K. Vereen, SB August 23, 2015

1974 Mr. Joseph E. Clancy, SE July 5, 2015

1975 Mr. Ernest H. Holt, MO October 8, 2015

1977 Mr. Dean G. Cassell, SE July 20, 2015

1978 Captain Timothy A. Holden, SM August 28, 2015

1979 Mr. John F. Naylor, SE April 18, 2015

1981 Mr. David H. Mullins, SE March 17, 2015 Mr. Enrique A. Yacuzzi, SM March 25, 2015

1984 Admiral Kevin F. Delaney, SE April 7, 2015 Mr. Jerry D. Hawsey, SE September 5, 2015

1985 Mr. George R. Burris, Jr., SE July 17, 2015 Mr. John Hallal, SM April 1, 2015

1987 Dr. Bruce A. MacDonald, PhD June 9, 2015

1990 Ms. Clara P. Steinberg, SE January 18, 2015

1992 Mr. Paul L. Collins, SE June 23, 2015

1998 Mr. Shea W. Peterson, MBA August 25, 2015

2000 Dr. Susan Cunningham, MBA September 3, 2015

2007 Dr. Rafael Lucea, PhD July 26, 2015

2008 Ms. Megan Marie Ford, MBA August 5, 2015

2009 Mr. Yan Wang, SB August 7, 2015

2012 Mr. Edward James Alfano, MBA May 25, 2015

2013 Ms. Ashleigh Royalty Range, MBA July 19, 2015

31 MIT Sloan Spring 2016

MIT SloanFall 2014 32

1925 Mr. Woodbury Howard, BO December 3, 1962

1926 Mr. John W. Bird, BO January 23, 1985

1930 Mr. Nicholas J. Welch, BO January 24, 1993

1931 Mr. Edgar T. White, Jr., SB September 26, 1992

1933 Mr. Alton J. Deutser, SB September 16, 1984

1948 Mr. John P. Reilly, SB August 20, 2012 Professor Daniel Sobala, SB December 1, 2012

1949 Mr. Gunnar F. Christensen, SB January 9, 2012

1950 Mr. Richard R. Potts, SB June 4, 2013

1954 Mr. Harold N. Bogart, SM November 2, 2005

1957 Professor Gerald Marwell, SB March 24, 2013 Mr. Hugh E. Witt, SM May 18, 2014 Reverend Robert J. Wrigley, SB April 25, 2011

1958 Mr. Kakuichiro Fujiyama, SM November 1, 2014 Mr. William M. Zarkowsky, SM September 3, 2004

1960 Mr. C. Gerald Diamond, SB February 26, 2013

1968 Mr. Robert M. Patrick, SM December 9, 2014 Mr. Edward L. Busick, SB September 12, 2013

1970 Dr. George W. Morgenthaler, SM September 4, 2014

1974 Mr. Raymond L.A.E. Bert, SM 2012

1975 Mr. David L. Cohen, SM August 24, 2011

1976 Mr. Robert T. Burton, SE 2008 Mr. Joseph A. Frankovsky, SE June 28, 2014

1978 Mr. Fred D. Iannazzi, SE November 1, 2012

1979 Mr. Richard M. Farrell, SM January 4, 2013

1983 Mr. Abraham S. Venable, SE February 21, 2013

1990 Mr. Lance L. Parker, SM June 26, 2011

MIT Sloan was saddened to learn recently of the passing of the following alumni.

32MIT SloanSpring 2016

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Spring 2014

THE CHALLENGE

The Hong Kong-based global sourcing and purchasing giant, the Fung Group, needed to establish and reinforce a shared business culture across multinational operations.

THE SOLUTION

Chairman Victor K. Fung (MIT SM ‘66) turned to MIT Sloan Executive Education to develop a custom program—held both on campus and in Hong Kong—that gave all of the company’s senior managers an opportunity to collectively learn the tools and principles necessary to improve its strategy and operation practices across the enterprise. Chairman Fung believes that the ongoing, large-scale custom executive education program with MIT Sloan is a cornerstone of the company’s efforts to excel as a learning organization.

The benefits of MIT Sloan don’t end when you leave campus. Many alums have partnered with our world-renowned faculty and centers of innovation to create custom engagements for their organizations, addressing key challenges and creating business value. They have also taken advantage of their 20% alumni discount for short courses at MIT Sloan Executive Education, staying on top of changing trends and ahead of the curve.

executive.mit.edu/customprograms | executive.mit.edu/openenrollment

What can MIT Sloan Executive Education do for you?

CUSTOM PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY: THE FUNG GROUP

How an alumnus engaged MIT to help his company excel

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Winter 2015

Non-Profit Org.

US Postage Paid

Permit 19

Burlington, VT

05401

MIT Sloan Office of External Relations77 Massachusetts Avenue, E60-200Cambridge, MA 02139

Email: [email protected]/alumni/

STAND UP AND BE COUNTED.THE GLOBAL GIVING CHALLENGE BEGINS 5/9/16

THIS YEAR,

WE’RE COUNTING ON YOU.

crowdfund.mit.edu/sloanglobalchallenge #Sloan5for500

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