Dear Alumni,
As we start a new year for the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta, we are excited about the upcoming events for 2010-2011. For the first time in the club’s history, we will have co-presidents with one continuing into next year to better assist in the work required and to maintain a continuity of progress from year to year. We have an outstanding group of Officers focused on running the club and providing you with an excellent choice of activities. We want to thank them for volunteering their time and ideas, and for contributing to our alumni community.
Listening to your feedback and looking to the future, we have made some specific changes:
• Allowed for multi-year memberships
• Instituted rolling memberships, allowing you to join at any time for one calendar year
• Arranged for Facebook and LinkedIn for our members, to be activated in late 2010
As co-presidents, we will continue to focus on the mission of our club, providing the HBS alumni of Atlanta the best opportunity to build their personal networks, learn from and contribute to thought leadership, and give back to our community through leadership and scholarships to non-profits.
Mark your calendars for our first events this year:
• Catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and check out the new Canopy Walk at our opening party on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Executive Director and club scholarship winner Mary Pat Matheson will talk about her recent course at HBS in Strategic Perspectives. This is free to all members. If you pay to attend and then decide to join the club, your membership fee will be credited with the price of admission.
• Join the small group discussion organized by the Entrepreneurship SIG on Friday September 24th. Guest speaker Dr. Don Panoz will open with how he has made his mark by acquiring several high profile motorsports companies with a diversity of applications.
• Talk sports and “Living the Dream” with guest speaker Kathy Betty, owner of the Atlanta Dream WNBA Basketball Team, on September 30th. This evening event is run by the Women's SIG, which has been one our most popular groups in HBSCA.
Additional functions to look forward to are:
• The Leadership Breakfast Series has long been a main cornerstone of our event offering. Our speakers for 2010-2011 include Charles Ellis, Author (The Partnership; Winning the Loser's Game; Elements of Investing) & Founder of Greenwich Associates; Kassim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta; Bill Nussey, Founder & CEO of SilverPop; Venture Capitalist (TechOperators) Tom Noonan, CEO of JouleX (energy-related start-up), and Co-Founder of ISS; Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company; Rajeev Dhawan, Professor / Economist / Economic Forecaster at Georgia State.
• Clark Howard, Atlanta’s own radio and TV financial personality, will be honored at this year’s Community Leadership Dinner. This event takes place in the spring, continuing the tradition of providing scholarships to Georgia non-profit executives to attend HBS executive programs.
• The Job Transition Group, one of the clubs fastest growing groups, meets each month to assist in boosting your success in moving to a new role.
Thank you to our sponsors who have continued to support HBSCA year after year and make many of our programs possible. Being a sponsor is a great way to show your company’s support for the work the club is doing. If you are interested in being a club sponsor, please contact Alex Perwich at aperwich@gmail.com.
Welcome to our returning members and those of you who are joining for the first time. We hope you will enjoy the 2010-2011 year and encourage you to get involved. Please contact us or any of the officers about how you can contribute.
Regards,
Stan Kelley and Ashley Bowling,
Co-Presidents, HBSCA
