Alumni

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.

Reduced launch costs, an explosion of angel investing, and a proliferation of incubators has created a bumper crop of early-stage startups, but taking the next step and receiving venture funding is a bigger challenge. Daniel Ciporin of Canaan Partners talks about the most promising markets and what it takes to get institutional venture capital excited.

Development organizations find themselves in fierce competition for funding. How can small nonprofits differentiate themselves so their capabilities aren't overlooked among the giants? We talked with one expert who has been delivering global health to underserved populations for decades.

Liang Meng, who founded a private equity firm after leading D.E. Shaw’s China operations, gives an overview of the fast-developing private equity market in China. He describes how demographic trends inform his investment strategy.

The days of U.S. boycotts of South Africa are long gone. The country is an economic powerhouse in Africa and a key economic partner for the U.S. In four years as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Donald Gips ’89 worked to increase investment and trade flows between the countries.

Any large organization has multiple stakeholders with different needs. And a truly global business has to deal with tremendous variation in cultural and regulatory contexts. For example, in the U.S., per capita credit card penetration is 2.5—meaning there are more than 2 credit cards for each person in the country. In Saudi Arabia, where Islam forbids the use of credit, the penetration rate is .04. How can a company cope with exponentially increasing complexity as it moves to more and more markets? And are there some businesses that don't translate easily—or at all—across borders?