Alumni

The investment banking industry has been subject to new scrutiny, increased regulation, and changing capital requirements since the financial crisis of 2008. How much has this changed what bankers do? Yale Insights spoke with industry veteran Fred Terrell '82.

The $1.5 trillion mining and metals sector supplies the feedstock for a large part of everyday life—from coal for power, to iron ore for steel girders, to the minerals and metals that are processed into the components of your iPhone. John Lichtenstein '83, a consultant and 30-year veteran of the sector, describes the state of this global industry and how one country—China—has an outsize influence on commodity prices everywhere.

Over the last 50 years, Western aid to the poorest countries has often failed to make tangible improvements in the lives of their citizens. Nadim Matta '89, president of the Rapid Results Institute, talks about the organization's approach to achieving incremental change by empowering frontline stakeholders.

The insurance exchanges at the center of healthcare reform will open for business later this year. Alongside existing for-profit insurers, the exchanges will include new nonprofit insurers called Consumer Oriented and Operated Plans (CO-OPs). Allison Silvers '90, chief operating officer of a CO-OP sponsored by the Freelancers Union in New York, discusses the health insurance exchanges and what it takes to create a new kind of insurer.

Long-term thinking often gets lost in solving short-term problems, but the most successful companies make corporate strategy a top priority.

The 2011 tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan shattered the nuclear industry’s "safety myth" and prompted the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in the country. Naomi Hirose '83 talks about leading the plant’s operating company through an unprecedented cleanup and rebuilding effort.

John Shrewsberry, the president of Wells Fargo Securities, outlines how government regulation and the ongoing tight credit environment are affecting the banking industry—and how big banks can keep up with the rapid pace of change today.

With the financial sector attempting to adapt to regulatory and economic uncertainty, firms are forced to prioritize and change. Phil Davis '85, an experienced management consultant, discusses the factors that can make organizational change succeed or fail, whether in the financial industry or another sector.

How do you turn personal values and sense of purpose into a leadership approach? Four alumni recently recognized as Donaldson Fellows by the Yale School of Management discussed their experiences with leadership expert Tom Kolditz. The conversation, on April 4, 2013, addressed the challenges that leaders face in maintaining a sense of purpose and adapting personal goals and values to different organizational contexts, roles, and cultural environments.

Private companies Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are putting rockets into space to resupply the International Space Station. According to Orbital’s Bill Claybaugh, the only thing tougher than rocket science may be making the rocket business work.