Opening Remarks

Simon Johnson, Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management & Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute

Simon Johnson, former Chief Economist at the IMF, Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT and co-author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown, opened the conference with a discussion on the recent financial crisis.  Dr. Johnson stressed the need for business schools to engage in a paradigm shift as well as a change of consensus in how business is being carried out. Dr. Johnson stressed that the “too big to fail” problem is central to the environment we face today and offered historical insight into the tensions between the consolidated power of banks and US democracy. To restore health and balance to the economy, Johnson argued that the megabanks of our current system need to be broken up and their potential to cause a devastating ripple effect removed.

Darden Case Discussion Workshop

Jay Bourgeois, Professor of Business Administration & Senior Fellow, Darden Center for Global Initiatives, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Jay Bourgeois introduced the technique of interactive, live case discussion to non-business school professors by presenting two short cases and engaging the audience in a case discussion. One case covered accounting and strategy issues; the second addressed an ethical dilemma in an emerging economy.  The case method of teaching demonstrates that learning is conducted by conversing with one another; and that conversation is an effective educational tool. The case method is used to teach students critical thinking and decision-making skills by presenting real-life decision points and the limited information available to the decision maker.  Dr. Bourgeois stressed the importance of interaction between the presenter and the audience, which influences the group’s feedback and the dynamics of the discussion.

According to the Case Method, there are 4 stages of learning:

1. Reading and forming one’s own ideas/perspective.
2. Grouping with others to share perspectives.
3. Back and forth conversation which moves forward and leads to new ideas.
4. Reflection and connecting the dots.

Pitch Dingman

Judging Panel: Nora Brown, COO, Global Business School Network (GBSN), John LaPides, CEO & Founder of the Shadow Point Advisor, Henry Geller, Founder & Owner of the SoDel Concepts

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business is a top-tier entrepreneurial institute recognized around the world as a leader in enterprise creation. Forward looking and community focused, the Center actively encourages a real-world business culture that innovatively bridges the theoretical with the practical.   The Pitch Dingman program allows students to present their innovative idea to investors and partners within a limited time frame. This provides students with a risk-free opportunity to develop business ideas and get important feedback on the viability of their business concepts.

During this session, a Pitch Dingman Competition was held between three entrepreneurs from the Smith School of Business. Each entrepreneur gave a five-minute pitch during the session and then took questions from the judging panel and the audience.

Three very different business ideas were pitched from a small, aerial surveillance device, to an online platform for secure, international manufacturing transactions, to an early childhood learning program. While the pitches were all well delivered, and the three business ideas all quite feasible, the judges awarded the first prize of $1,000 to Leading Start Kids, the pre-school, with a second prize of $250 awarded to TAI, the import-processing platform. The Audience Choice award of $250 was also given to Leading Start Kids.

Health Management: Assessing the Impact

Facilitator: Dr. Michael Bzdak, Director Corporate Contributions, Johnson & Johnson

This session looked at the value of management and leadership training in the health sector and the difficulty of assessing its impact.  The group loosely defined the output as the trained individuals,  outcome as the intermediate changes within these organizations as a result of the skills imparted during the training;and the impact as the contribution to health outcomes as a result of better management and leadership. 

There was consensus among the discussants that management training for health professionals was critical for improving the efficiency and efficacy of health systems. However, it is difficult to train managers in afield that respects and rewards the technical and clinical capacities of its workers. Additionally, in order to see a systemic impact, one can’t simply “train the lonely health worker” because it is difficult for a single individual to make an impact within their organization. Some work has been done in training teams of health care professionals and a positive impact has been measured. Management Sciences for Health has shown examples of working with teams on problem solving skills in their own settings and have made progress in establishing links between inputs (management practices) and the outcomes (reducing morbidity and mortality). 

Experiential/Field-based Learning

Facilitator: Leif Sjoblom, Professor of Financial Management, IMD Business School 

Experiential learning provides students the opportunity to capture a broader educational experience (such as incorporating the cultural background of their program sites) versus learning in the classroom.  Educators and students value this type of integrative education rather than a curriculum solely focused on functional lessons. There are several constraints to this type of learning though. One of the constraints is the lack of time in a semester to ensure a high quality product.    Additionally, the short time frame often prevents educators from focusing on reflection despite its importance.  Measuring the value of experience is also difficult,although capturing qualitative information from both students and clients offers some measure of quality and value.Cost is also a challenge as fieldwork often requires transportation and logistics not met by tuition.  Faculty have found creative solutions to this problem by using programs such as Skype for videoconferencing, a combination of desk research and short site visits, and information from previous field-trip participants to mitigate some of the challenges.  Additionally, many schools have recognized that the benefits of experiential learning far outweigh the costs and have set up specific funds to allow students to do field work and gain the firsthand experience needed to compete in the marketplace.

Non-Traditional Roles for Business Schools in Society

Facilitators: Bill Kramer, Sr. Associate Director, Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise Colorado State University
Carl Hammerdorfer, Director, Global Social & Sustainable Enterprise Colorado State University

Participants discussed the different roles that business schools can and do play to improve social welfare. For example, UC Berkley’s Haas School of Business has been implementing a program that partners students with McKinsey Consulting to launch social innovation banks that provide resources for social entrepreneurs around the world. This program is coordinated by the student body with some help from the faculty.  Both the students and the consulting company benefit from the program, resulting in satisfied customers and an increase in clients.

This is just one example in which business schools can leverage their strengths to have a positive social impact. Other areas of social impact in which business schools engage are social entrepreneurship training, the triple bottom line approach, and BOP research and market analysis. Many of these activities are not new to business schools, but adapt traditional business school programs to have a more socially oriented focus.

Corporate Governance

Facilitator: Steve Wallenstein, Director of the Directors’ Institute, Robert H. Smith School of Business

The Center for International Social Enterprise at the University of Maryland has done corporate governance work in Columbia, Russia and Philippines where it instituted a scorecard system to measure corporate governance at publicly listed companies.  Their findings concluded that corruption remains a considerable problem, and there is a need to develop a common definition across cultures and nations of what corruption is.  In some countries the use of technology has overcome some of the corruption problems due to increased transparency, such as in India where all building records were digitized thus removing corruption in that sector.

Responsible Management Education & the Oath Project

Facilitator: Rich Leimsider, Senior Program Associate, The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program

The Oath Project is a new NGO founded in collaboration by the World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute, UN Global Compact and several other participating NGOs committed to advancing the concept of a universal oath for business school graduates.In fields like law and medicine, graduates commit to professional and ethical practice at graduation. The Oath Project aims for a similar commitment for MBA graduates to “professionalize” the practice of management.  Participants explored the possibility of creating a “global business oath” as a means of defining a standard of integrity and service to society for business leaders.

The Oath raises questions about the role of business education to teach ethics and expectations for MBAs and other business leaders to contribute to a better world.   However, changing traditional business curriculum is challenging and controversial; many people do not believe the system is broken. Ultimately, The Oath Project believes business leaders should“hold themselves to the higher standard of integrity and service to society that is the hallmark of a true professional”.   GBSN and its members will continue this discussion via GBSN Connect.

Competitors as Partners: The Feasibility of Consortia

Facilitator: Brent Chrite, Dean, Montclair State University’s School of Business

The Feasibility of Consortia Round Table Session addressed the challenges business schools face in trying to collaborate with one another and the benefits that are realized whens uccessful partnerships are formed. There was a consensus from the group that business schools do have many things to gain from the partnerships.  Forming partnerships leads to an overall increase in benefit for participant schools given that each school concentrates on what they are proficient in.

The group then discussed some key elements of successful partnerships, including agreed upon outcomes, the presence of institutional commitment, an accurate understanding of each partner’s capabilities, and genuine faculty interest.  With these critical ingredients in place, business schools can form meaningful partnership and measure their success through measurable indicators and benchmarks. Such evaluations will ensure that all parties are held accountable, and all participants gain value from the partnership.

Plenary Session: Innovation & Impact of Management Across Sectors

Cleopa Mailu, Chief Executive Officer, The Nairobi Hospital

Facing stagnant growth, increasing costs of care, and high staff turnover, Nairobi Hospital was risking closure.   The institution needed strong leadership to come in and turn it around.  Dr. Mailu and his team were able to do this through improved processes, investment in infrastructure, improved quality of care, and strengthened organizational decision-making. Some approaches included increased use of ICT, outsourcing non-core business functions, convincing the hospital board of the importance of making investments, and empowering the work force. On the point of investments, Dr. Mailu articulated the importance of balancing profitability and accessibility.  Surpluses are not caused by price increases, but cost containment and efficient management practice. Managing health care organizations effectively is critical; hospitals are businesses that have to be run efficiently. Dr. Mailu concluded by saying that the application of sound management and leadership skills was key to Nairobi Hospital’s success, and success in health care translates to higher quality care and better health outcomes.

Mary Liz Kehler, Director of Planning, Fundación Paraguaya

The mission of Fundacion Paraguaya is to develop innovative solutions to poverty in Paraguay and apply these solutions around the world.  Initially created as a microfinance institution, the organization took over a bankrupt agriculture school in an arid region, and applied business and management principles to make the school financially sustainable after only five years. The goal to become financially self-sufficient was realized by utilizing the many business opportunities on the campus.  Rather than looking at what the organization thought students should know, they looked at what the market was telling them. Fundacion Paraguaya brought people in from the microfinance program (trained in management principles) to work with students on the development of business plans for the projects.  The school then provided hands-on training and assisted students with the financial operations of the businesses.  This approach not only led to financial sustainability, but provided the students with invaluable experience in agribusiness while offering the community fresh, local products.

Mari Kuraishi, President and Co-founder, GlobalGiving

GlobalGiving is an innovative non-profit offering a transparent, high-impact way for funders to donate to international charities. GlobalGiving helps to serve grassroots charitable organizations by giving them access to new donors, online fundraising training, media exposure and a cost-effective online fundraising platform.  Locally run projects with creative ideas previously out of reach from traditional funding mechanisms now have access to new sources of funds.  While GlobalGiving has been quite successful, they have faced many challenges along the way. One challenge for GlobalGiving was the required oversight on all expenditures made by their grantees.  An innovative solution was the creation of credit cards for each of their grantees.  This allowed GlobalGiving to oversee transactions and provided an easy way to transfer donated funds.  Another challenge currently faced is the limited wage structure of non-profits and the resulting difficulties in attracting and retaining talented staff.In order to overcome this challenge, GlobalGiving has employed creative HR practices which has allowed them to attract quality applicants.

Bottom-up Entrepreneurship for Development

Iqbal Quadir, Founder & Director, Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship at MIT & Founder, Grameenphone Limited

When Iqbal Quadir, born and raised in Bangladesh, searched for a college to attend in the US, he was surprised that many good schools were located outside Washington, DC. Applying the logic that the best universities and services in Bangladesh were concentrated in the capital city of Dhaka, Quadir expected that suitable US colleges would only be found in the capital. Knowing that Bangladesh was a poor country and the US a rich one, Quadir saw a link between this disparity in wealth and differences in distribution—meaning, concentration versus dispersion—of facilities between the two countries. Later, Quadir realized that dispersion of power had historically led to economic progress in rich countries, where opportunities were widespread.  In contrast, concentration of power was impeding progress in poor countries, where opportunities were restricted to a narrow urban elite.

In the US, for example, property owners started out on relatively equal economic footing and organized their democracy together. In this way, power had been dispersed from the beginning. In Europe, power had been concentrated in monarchies, but dispersion was achieved over centuries as citizens gained economic clout. Through innovations in technologies and commerce, people were able to widen the base of power and demand checks and balances. Since innovations and commerce were a key factor in achieving dispersion of power in Europe, Quadir recognized the role that innovations and entrepreneurship could play in dispersing economic and political power in poor countries today.

In the early 1990s, Quadir recognized that the cascading prices of digital technologies would make mobile phones affordable for the poor. Furthermore, since mobile phones would allow the poor to capitalize on time and economic opportunity, these productivity gains would lead to immediate economic gains for individuals. In this way, people would be able to afford mobile phones and services, and would be willing to pay for them in order to receive an immediate economic benefit. Quadir felt that, if he could find a way to distribute the phones to the poor, this technology could disperse economic power to the masses in Bangladesh, a country where only one in 500 people had a phone at the time.

In 1994, Quadir used his savings and funding from an angel investor to register his company, Gonofone (meaning, “phones for the masses” in Bengali), and left his job as an investment banker in New York City to return to Bangladesh. Gonofone became a launch pad for the company today known as Grameenphone. Quadir pioneered an innovative partnership including Gonofone, Telenor of Norway, to provide telecommunications expertise, and Grameen Bank. By capitalizing on Grameen Bank’s rural borrower network, Quadir found a way to distribute phones to Bangladesh’s rural areas. Likewise, village phone ladies receiving microcredit loans from Grameen Bank opened businesses to retail the phone services, which allowed villagers with initially low purchasing power to pay on a per call basis.

Grameenphone is now the largest mobile phone provider in Bangladesh, and has sparked a vibrant telecom sector, providing access throughout the country. In other words, “phones for the masses” has become a reality. Grameenphone also provides the Bangladeshi government with over $300 million annually in tax revenues. The key lesson Quadir draws from the Grameenphone experience is that it is possible to create a win-win-win situation by providing productivity tools, such as mobile phones, to the masses. First, citizens gain in productivity, allowing them to pay for this tool. In turn, providers gain profits by selling the tool. Overall, society as a whole gains in terms of economic and social benefits. Chief among these benefits is the economic empowerment of ordinary people, representing a dispersion of economic power. Quadir’s experience with Grameenphone led him to establish the Legatum Center at MIT, which supports MIT students in creating for-profit enterprises in poor countries, which can give rise to bottom-up development.

CEO Panel: Management Challenges in Emerging Markets

High-level executives from international corporations discussed the obstacles and advantages of working in frontier markets.

Fola Laoye, Group Managing Director of the Hygeia Group

The Hygeia Group is one of the largest private health HMO’s in Nigeria.  Due to poor health services provided by the public sector in Nigeria, the private sector in the last 15 years has had has stepped in to create additional capacity and fill the gap; it is now delivering 50% or more of health care services.   Ms. Laoye, as Group Managing Director,faces challenges in management including limited access to financing, poor health outcomes, and the ongoing brain drain. 

Ms. Laoye was challenged to create a professional management team.  In a sector that promotes the best clinicians to the top and in a country with a limited human capital base, Ms. Laoye was faced with a difficult problem. Physicians are often used as the leader of a clinical team, but most are not prepared for the business management.  To improve the management skills of physicians, she has brought in managers from other unrelated sectors to work along side the medical doctors, while supporting physicians undertaking executive management training. She was able to partner with Lagos Business School where physicians received executive education training to improve their leadership and management skills.

Edwin Fuller, President & Managing Director, International Lodging, Marriott International

Mr. Fuller is responsible for international operations of Marriott International, which plans to increase its presence in emerging markets.  Marriott views emerging markets as a white space with tremendous opportunities to grow.  In working in international markets,sometimes the cultural values and corporate values may not mix.  For example, Marriott International corporate values believe in taking care of the Associates so that in turn their Associates will take care of the customers.  It was difficult to make Associates understand that these values were genuine.  For those used to dictatorial environments, empowerment was a new experience, and Marriott International had to convince their associates that they were sincere. 

One of the most difficult challenges for managers is to adapt to the local culture.  One has to understand that if it works in one country it will not necessarily work in another.  For example, in China all cities function in a different way and they have to account for this within each hotel.  You must first build sensitivity to the culture in which you are operating, which includes understanding the full country history and its challenges.  It is imperative to convince associates and investors that you sincerely want to understand their culture, community, and values. It is not about dumping money into the country, but rather rolling up your sleeves and participating in the community. 

William Hutton, President, Titan Steel Corporation 

Mr. Hutton was brought in to help realign the company to reflect changing patterns of supply and demand.   From the early days, the company brought in expats to work in international markets, but that was not sustainable for the long term and local hiring became more common. When hiring locally, Mr. Hutton finds that the employees that have had any experience working or studying in the U.S or abroad had skills far beyond those that did not.  Potential employees with international experience were looked highly upon as compared to those who didn’t.  This international exposure allowed local hires to better understand the corporate culture and gave them an advantage in working in a multinational company.

Other skill sets discussed by the panel that they found beneficial include: exposure to a market outside of their own country, communication skills, a broad business background and an attention to detail. The best employees have a willingness to understand a local culture and people.  The study of management is critical,but one needs to recognize that there are differences between managing strategies in different countries around the world.

Wrap Around Services: The Importance of Mentoring & Networking

Facilitator: Ellen Soriano, Program Director, University of Asia and the Pacific

Participants discussed the important nature of wraparound services, defined here as the multitude of support services provided to entrepreneurs and business owners in addition to training which provide a bridge between in-class education and real-world enterprise.  Mentoring, one of the most important of such services provides opportunities for leadership development, confidence building, and problem solving. Additionally, providing a platform for peers to network with each other and opportunities for such networks to come together builds a strong community which offers support, advice, and business solutions to small, growing businesses.  These services are often viewed as providing more value to entrepreneurs than the classroom training itself due to their ongoing nature, their dynamic structures, and their mechanisms for continued learning and support.

Measuring Impact & Results in Entrepreneurship

Facilitator: Peter Bamkole, Director, Enterprise Development Services, Pan-African University

Impact can be measured through both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are much easier to interpret because they provide a clearer account of success or failure. However, there are some results that are difficult to measure with numbers but are still important indicators of success. For example, change of attitudes or behaviors are important results that should be measured, but are more difficult to quantify.

The benefits of measuring impact are varied. Demonstrating impact through measurable indicators is important in understanding the success of a particular approach and can be used to determine return on investment.  However, because quantitative data can often be elusive when assessing the effect of capacity building, attempts to measure impact can often be inconclusive, or worse, point to the wrong conclusion. Despite these difficulties, impact evaluations are necessary and serve a purpose, but they should be seen a more as an attempt at understanding progress and not a complete measurement of the success of the initiative.

Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Training

Facilitator: Dennis Hanno, Undergraduate Dean, Babson College

During this session, participants shared their experience in entrepreneurship education at their institutions. Although there are differences between each program’s approaches, the group agreed that the common understanding of entrepreneurship education focuses on innovation, thinking creatively, and taking risks.  Courses are usually multidisciplinary with a practical focus on business challenges and leadership.  Entrepreneurship education does not necessarily lead to students creating new ventures, but focuses on imparting entrepreneurial skill-sets which can be applied in any setting.

Participants also discussed the benefit of having both practitioners and researchers within the faculty.   In many cases, there is a larger number of practitioners than academic professors.  In addition to academics and practitioners, entrepreneurship faculty portfolios often include sector-specific experts from fields such as science, technology, and medicine.  These experts can help bridge the gap between technological innovation and bringing new products to the market. 

Investing in Small Business Growth

Facilitator: Paulo Prochno, Tyser Teaching Fellow, Robert H. Smith School of Business 

Participants discussed the ways that business schools can foster investment, prepare small business owners and investors and address the specific barriers to small businesses that exist in different parts of the world.

The group discussed several ideas and actions that business schools could take to address these three issues. Incubators that provide start-ups with free or reduced cost access to professors, lawyers and accountants and give the new businesses a stamp of approval, making them more attractive to investors, can be extremely helpful for nascent companies. Business plan competitions feeding into on-campus angel funds that help to match investors with promising opportunities can also be a powerful combination for promoting investment. In addition, business schools can add to the body of research on small businesses and provide impact analysis of the various interventions taken to support small business.

Other ways for business schools to prepare small business owners and investors include teaching ‘investment readiness’, using student projects to provide coaching and technical knowledge and establishing partnerships with business associations. In order to promote access to resources, both financial and non-financial, business schools can provide access to networks and knowledge,perhaps by organizing a day in which students can consult professionals in their field. There was consensus among the group that business schools can and should play a role in supporting small businesses. While the methods of support varied from school to school, a mixture of researching,teaching, mentoring, and networking was thought to offer the most comprehensive approach.

Skills and Tools for Managing Wicked Innovation Problems

Facilitators: Michael Radnor, Professor and Center Director, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Jeffrey Strauss, Associate Director, BCICS-CTIM, Northwestern University

“Wicked problems” occur in complex contexts where changes in society, technology, regulatory environment, and stakeholders create VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) situations without clear solutions. Exploring one challenge reveals other connected problems, and responses will require trade offs, encounter resistance to change, and dealing with unclear data. In a highly uncertain environment, it is hard to know where to begin to respond to innovation problems.

Participants in this session looked at the challenges of teaching management in a setting with ongoing changes in industries,global context, emerging markets, legacy systems, convergence of technologies, and local, regional, global, social and environmental pressures. 

To manage such problems, individuals need distinct skills, and business education has to adapt to take on challenges like teaching people to be able to tolerate ambiguity and assess underlying drivers of problems.  It is important that students are able to make mistakes and be sensitive to early indications of a problem. Managing an organization means managing dilemmas.  Tools that help students think and respond may include: multi scenario task mapping, cascading effects, mind mapping, road mapping, scenario planning, and domain mapping. Business school curriculum should reflect the complex dynamics of doing business in today’s global markets and should strive to produce graduates with the ability to make decisions, adjust and readjust to new situations, assess risk, and take action in the face of uncertainty.

Sub Saharan Africa

Facilitator: Franklyn Manu, Dean, GIMPA Business School

This session included insights from Deans and university representatives, as well as outside perspectives.  Conversation took place in the context of increasing demand of students interested in business school education, and a range of the challenges business schools face in meeting this demand.  Some of the specific challenges discussed include the relationship with the parent university, attracting and training faculty, recruiting quality students, managing workload, and dealing with limited resources. Many business schools in Africa are part of larger, often public universities.  The organizational structure is such that the business schools have little flexibility in their hiring and compensation structures and their fee structures, and face a cumbersome process for curriculum changes. This,along with a lack of highly-qualified faculty, makes recruitment and retention difficult, and faculty development extremely important. Additionally, business school faculty are often given large course loads and tend to supplement their income through additional teaching opportunities, which limits the time available for research. Lastly, business schools in Africa do not have the traditional linkages to private sector that many western schools have. This makes it difficult to ensure relevance of the curriculum and provides little opportunity for faculty and students to apply their skills in real life business settings. 

Despite the many obstacles faced by business schools in Africa, the number and quality of institutions is growing.  There is a growing recognition of their importantrole in developing robust economies, and through organizations like the Association of African Business Schools, there is a better understanding of quality standards and best practices for Africanbusiness education.

Latin America

Facilitator:  Francisco Santibáñez, MBA Director, Universidad del Desarrollo

Latin American business schools face several obstacles to achieving accreditation.   Accreditation often is not granted due to underdeveloped research. In order to change this, schools must concentrate more on research, which will lead to better rankings and better partnership programs. However, business schools should find a balance between research and instruction and should not sacrifice relevance for rigor.

There are a variety of teaching methodologies in business institutions in Latin America. For example, Fundação Dom Cabralbuilds a curriculum plan for specific candidates whereas Universidad del Desarollo and IAE Business School have a more traditional program. The benefits of Fundação Dom Cabral’s method are that the education is better tailored to the students, while the drawback is a lack of concentration on general research.

Social responsibility is an issue that has been increasingly important in curricula since the recent financial crisis. In Latin American business schools, there are different strategies employed to teach social responsibility. At Universidad del Desarollo, there is a specific class dedicated to social ethics. At IAE Business School, the principles of social responsibility are blended throughout the curriculum. Whatever method is implemented, all parties seem to agree that a basic understanding of ethics is needed before exposing students to the dilemmas facing business practitioners.  

Asia

Facilitator: Geetha Krishnan, Director, Centre for Executive Education, Indian School of Business

The Asia Round Table discussion focused on the challenge of making business education relevant to the economic realities of Asian countries while meeting growing demand.  Topics discussed included sourcing local or regional businesses to study for the creation of course materials, sharing Asia’s great success stories with the rest of the world, and adapting technology to reach wide audiences and reduce communication barriers. Challenges discussed included how to incorporate more entrepreneurship training within traditional academic frameworks, how to overcome political and regulatory uncertainty, and how to create locally relevant case studies and course materials when the necessary research is still difficult to obtain.

Middle East & North Africa

Facilitator: Khalid Al-Naif, Director, Development Consulting Services, The William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan

Issues facing business schools in the region are related to lack of research and development locally. It is critical that students be educated about relevant issues in their local environment. Challenges include a centralized government-controlled education system that is poorly developed and a lack of demand for MBA graduates in the region.  Public education is commonly free but of low quality. More private institutions are starting to appear that may improve the quality, but there remains a lack of facilities and faculty. It is hard to attract foreign faculty, as salary is not competitive. The education system must change at the foundational level starting with childhood education. Innovation and  critical thinking must be encouraged early on for any changes to be made. Entrepreneurship should be taught from elementary level on.  Issues of women’s higher education in the Middle East are often overplayed; in many cases (although not extreme cases such as Afghanistan), women make up the majority of students in higher education and are often much more educated than men.

Debora L. Spar is the seventh president of Barnard College. A political scientist by training, her research focuses on issues of international political economy, examining how rules are established in new or emerging markets and how firms and governments together shape the evolving global economy. Spar is the author of numerous articles and books, including most recently Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Invention, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet and The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception. Prior to coming to Barnard, Spar was the Spangler Family Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Associate Dean, Director of Research.

Professor Iqbal Z. Quadir is the founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and founder of Grameenphone Limited in Bangladesh. For nearly twenty years, he has been advocating for the use of mobile phones to empower ordinary people in low-income countries and for commerce-based solutions for their advancement.

While pursuing a career in investment banking in New York in the early 1990s, Quadir recognized that the ensuing digital revolution could bring connectivity to 100 million people living in rural Bangladesh. To make this vision a reality, he established a New York based company, Gonofone Development Corp (meaning “phones for the masses” in Bengali), which became the launch pad for Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest phone company providing access to over 22 million subscribers irrespective of their geographic location or economic standing.

From 2001-2004, Quadir taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, focusing on the democratizing effects of technologies in developing countries. In 2005, he moved to MIT where he co-founded the journal Innovations (MIT Press) and founded the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, which promotes discourse and action on bottom-up development and administers a highly competitive fellowship for MIT graduate students who intend to launch enterprises in low-income counties.

Quadir holds both an MBA and an MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS with honors from Swarthmore College.

María Otero was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs on August 10, 2009. She oversees and coordinates U.S. foreign relations on a variety of global issues, including democracy, human rights, and labor; environment, oceans, health and science; population, refugees, and migration; trafficking in persons and avian and pandemic influenza. She is also the United States’ Special Representative for Tibetan Affairs. Ms. Otero was formerly the president and CEO of ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in microfinance working in 25 countries in around the globe. Under Ms. Otero’s tenure as CEO, ACCION’s network of microfinance institutions expanded its reach from serving 460,000 people to over 3.7 million, through a combined portfolio that grew from $274 million to nearly $3.6 billion. She is a leading voice on sustainable microfinance, publishing extensively on the subject and speaking throughout the world on microfinance, women’s issues and poverty alleviation. Prior to ACCION, Ms. Otero was the Economist for Latin America for the Women in Development office of USAID. She also served for five years at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA).

Ms. Otero’s awards and recognition include selection by Newsweek in October 2005 as one of the United States’ 20 most influential women; Hispanic Business Magazine’s ‘Elite Women of 2007’; Notre Dame University’s Distinguished Service in Latin America Award; and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In June 2006, Ms. Otero was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors. She sits on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a position to which she was originally appointed by President Clinton and now holds as the State Department representative. Ms. Otero has chaired the board of Bread for the World, and also served on the boards of the Calvert Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, the Inter-American Foundation and BRAC Holding of Bangladesh. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Born in La Paz, Bolivia, Ms. Otero is currently the highest ranking Hispanic official at the State Department, and the first Latina Under Secretary in its history.

Ms. Otero holds an M.A. in literature from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins’ Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), in Washington, D.C, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. Since 1997, she has also served as an adjunct professor at SAIS.

Deepak serves as head of Goldman Sachs’ Office of Corporate Engagement (OCE) for Europe, Middle East and Africa and joined the firm as Executive Director in 2010. The OCE works to coordinate the firm’s global philanthropic efforts, including its signature 10,000 Women program, a five-year initiative to offer a business and management education to women entrepreneurs around the world.

Previously, Deepak served as (i) Vice President of the India focused SME Enterprise Fund of a major Singapore family office, (ii) an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and (iii) a private equity and M&A lawyer at the law firm of Mintz Levin in Boston. Deepak holds dual MBAs from the Columbia and London Business Schools and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School in Washington DC.

Simon Johnson is a British-American economist. He currently is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He has held a wide variety of academic and policy-related positions, including Professor of Economics at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. From March 2007 through the end of August 2008, he was Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund. Professor Johnson is an expert on financial and economic crises. As an academic, in policy roles, and with the private sector, he has worked for over 20 years on crisis prevention and economic recovery around the world. Simon Johnson holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, an M.A. from the University of Manchester, and his B.A. is from the University of Oxford.

Nationality: USA; Education: Brown University (USA) – B.A.; The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) (USA) – M.A. in International Affairs; Georgetown University (USA) – M.A. in Economics. Ms. Kehler has been the Director of Planning for the Fundación Paraguaya since 2005 and the Director of the Fundación Paraguaya´s office in Washington, DC since September 2007. Before joining the Fundación, she worked as Economist at the U.S. Treasury Department, holding positions in the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. She later joined the staff of the International Monetary Fund as the Economist for the West Bank and Gaza Strip and later served as the Managing Director’s Speechwriter.

Her work at the Fundación includes the development and financing of new programs to promote entrepreneurship and eliminate poverty, as well as the replication of the “financially self-sufficient school” model of education for low-income youth pioneered by the Fundación Paraguaya. Among other accolades, this model won the Templeton Freedom Award Prize for Sustainability supported by the Templeton Foundation (November 2009), the WISE Award for Sustainability from the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE) held in Doha, Qatar (November 2009) and The Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project funded by the Japanese Ministry of Finance and awarded at the Global Development Network conference in Prague (January 2010)

Founded in 1985, Fundación Paraguaya is a leading social enterprise which develops innovative solutions to poverty and unemployment in Paraguay and proactively disseminates them worldwide. It has 250 employees, 18 offices throughout Paraguay and an annual budget of US$8.5 million (2010).

Dr. Mailu holds an MBChB from the University of Nairobi and MSc. Med Science from the University of Glasgow. Prior to joining the Nairobi Hospital, Dr. Mailu worked in the government where he held several positions which include Director, Health Sector Reform Programme, Director, Division of Family Health and Manager of the Kenya Expended Programme.

He also worked at Kenyatta National Hospital as Quality Assurance Manager, General Outpatient Manager, Casualty/Emergency Medicine Manager and Clinical Geneticist. Before his appointment as the Chief Executive Officer, The Nairobi Hospital, he was working with UNICEF, India Country Office. Recently, he was honoured with the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) medal by His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki, President of the Republic of Kenya.

Mari Kuraishi co-founded GlobalGiving in 2000. She is the President of GlobalGiving, an online marketplace that connects people to the causes they care most about. Donors select the locally run projects they want to fund, helping to make lasting change throughout the world. She joined the World Bank in 1991 where she managed and created some of the Bank's most innovative projects. including the first ever Innovation and Development Marketplaces. The Development Marketplace has been recognized as a leading example of public sector innovation in an article in the Harvard Business Review. She has lived in Japan, Italy, Germany, and the United States. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard, including completion of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Mrs. Laoye holds a Bachelors Degree in Accounting from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, Cambridge, USA. She is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. Fola has had fifteen years of business experience, both locally and internationally, having trained with Ernst & Young, Lagos and Price WaterHouse Coopers in London. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Hygeia Nigeria Limited, promoters of Hygeia HMO, the foremost health maintenance organization in Nigeria and the Lagoon Hospitals group. While with Hygeia, she has been responsible for the start up and growth of the HMO business and the roll-out of two ultra-modern medical facilities in Lagos. She also lectures part-time at the Lagos Business School (Pan-African University) in the area of Strategy and Business Policy.

Hygeia Nigeria Limited was incorporated in 1984 as a limited liability company. The Company was promoted by Prof. E. A. Elebute and Prof. (Mrs.) O. W. Elebute, a husband-and-wife team of physicians who, had several years medical experience, having been among the foundation staff team of the Lagos university Teaching Hospital in Lagos at its inception in 1962. At inception, Hygeia successfully raised capital from 22 shareholders including African Alliance Insurance Company Limited, UNIC Insurance Plc, and Lion of Africa Insurance Plc. In the past five years, Hygeia Nigeria Limited has made the transition from being an investment in a hospital to a full-fledged healthcare company, having accomplished the development of its Integrated Healthcare Delivery model.

Edwin D. “Ed” Fuller is president and managing director of international lodging for Marriott International, Inc. Based at the company’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., he has overall operating responsibility for managed and franchised hotels spanning seven lodging brands and brand extensions outside the continental United States and Canada. This region includes Hawaii and 68 countries in Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East and encompasses more than 350 hotels with annual gross sales exceeding $6.6 billion.

Mr. Fuller joined Marriott in 1972 as a management trainee and has held numerous positions of increasing marketing and operational responsibility. These include director national and international sales and reservations; vice president of sales & marketing and opening general manager of the Long Island (NY) Marriott and the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotels. In 1985, he was named regional vice president for Marriott’s Midwest Region, based in Chicago; four years later, he was appointed regional vice president for the Western/Pacific Region, based in Newport Beach, CA. He assumed leadership of Marriott’s international lodging operations in 1991 as senior vice president and managing director and later was promoted to executive vice president and managing director. He was promoted to president and managing director, his current position, in 1997.

Under his leadership, Marriott International’s presence outside the continental U.S. and Canada has grown from 16 properties in 1991. The company’s international hotels lead in share in the majority of the markets in which they are located. Another 120 hotels are scheduled to join the company’s international portfolio outside the U.S. and Canada over the next 24 months.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Fuller was credited with establishing Marriott International’s original international reservations network and for its sales and marketing organization in Europe and the Middle East. He served as a board member and chairman of SNR International, a reservations consortium based in Zurich.

Mr. Fuller attended Wake Forest University and is a 1968 graduate of Boston University. He is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business advanced management program. He served in the U.S. Army as a captain in Germany and Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal.

An active alumnus of Boston University, Mr. Fuller is a former president of its Alumni Association, and a former trustee of the University. He currently serves on the advisory boards of both its hotel and business schools where he is Chairman of the Hospitality Board. In 1998, he received the Alumni Award, the University’s highest recognition. He recently was appointed to the board of overseers of Boston University. He also serves on the advisory board and chairs the international sub-committee of the University of California Irvine MBA program. He is a trustee of the International Business Leaders Forum and serves as director of the Board of the IBLF North America, chairs the Governing Council of the International Tourism Partnership, is a Director on the Board of United Way International and serves on the Pacific Area Travel Association Foundation Board, the corporate advisory board of Safe Kids Worldwide, and the TravelAge West Editorial Advisory Board and the Global Hotel Network Advisory Editorial Board.

William Hutton is President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer of Titan Steel Corporation. Titan Steel Corporation is an international steel products distributor headquartered in Baltimore, MD with 120 employees and annual sales of approximately USD 125 million to customers located in more than 30 countries. Titan Steel Corporation has steel processing facilities in North America as well as overseas offices located in Sao Paulo, Madrid, Dubai, Hong Kong and Ningbo, China.

Mr. Hutton graduated from Williams College in 1979 with a BA degree in Political Economy. During 1979-1980 Mr. Hutton was employed as a Research Assistant in the Foreign Policy Studies program at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He received a joint MBA/MA degree in 1983 from Yale University. From 1983 until 1985 Mr. Hutton was employed by General Motors Corporation at their Treasurer’s Office in New York, NY.

Mr. Hutton joined The Titan Industrial Corporation in 1985 as Assistant to the President in New York, NY. After directing the startup of Titan Steel Corporation, Mr. Hutton was named Vice President, Operations and Finance at Titan Steel Corporation in 1988. Mr. Hutton was promoted to Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Titan Steel Corporation in 2001, and became Titan Steel Corporation’s President in 2006. Mr. Hutton is a 2010 winner of the Maryland International Business Leadership Award.

A dynamic leader with a strong founding in academia, Dean G. “Anand” Anandalingam has been with the Smith School since 2001 and was appointed dean in 2008. During this time he has served in various key senior leadership positions as senior associate dean and as chair of the Smith School’s decision, operations and information technologies department. He has played a role in supporting the school’s rise in reputation in the past decade with expansion projects that more than doubled the physical size of the school and equipped it with state-of-the-art infrastructure; and the recruitment of a significant number of new faculty members from the world’s premier research institutions. He was also responsible for helping to develop Smith’s global executive programs and led the school’s effort to revamp and innovate the MBA curriculum.

Before joining Smith in 2001, he was at the University of Pennsylvania for nearly 15 years where he was the National Center Professor of Resource and Technology Management, and a professor in both the Engineering School and the Wharton School. His positions at the University of Pennsylvania included serving as the chair of the Department of Systems Engineering and directing the Executive Master’s Program in Technology Management. He has received numerous academic and teaching awards while at the Smith School, as well as a variety of scholarships, fellowships, prizes and endowed appointments at Pennsylvania, Harvard and Cambridge. He has been on editorial boards of top-tier journals and has also graduated more than 20 PhD students, many of who have joined top-30 academic institutions. He received his PhD from Harvard University.

Guy Pfeffermann was born in Montauban, France. He received his Licence en Droit et Sciences Economiques in Paris in 1962 and was awarded first prize, Concours General, a French national inter-university essay competition. Mr. Pfeffermann was a Besse scholar at St.Antony's College, Oxford from 1962-65 and received a B.Litt. (Oxon.) in 1967.

Mr. Pfeffermann joined the World Bank’s Young Professionals Program in December 1966. He served as Chief Economist for the Latin America and Caribbean Region from 1979-87 and Chief of Debt and Macroeconomic Adjustment division from 1987-88. He was the Director of the Economics Department and Chief Economist for the International Finance Corporation from 1988-2003. Since 2003, he has served as the Director of the Global Business School Network of International Finance Corporation. He retired from the World Bank in 2006. From 2000-2003 he was also an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. From 2003-2007, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Giving Foundation. He is currently on the Advisory Board of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS).