Alumni involvement drives college success

Last fall, more than 400 southeast Michigan businesspeople, including Broad School students and alumni, packed the MSU Management Education Center in Troy, Mich., to hear Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote presentation, “Customer-Focused Innovation.” (speech transcript at www.microsoft.com/...) The event drew news reporters from several Michigan magazines and newspapers, who subsequently did major stories on the event. Anyone who couldn’t be there to hear Ballmer that evening still got the message: The Broad School is a major player in the business community.

Alumni connections

Virtually no organization could pay Steve Ballmer — nor most other top business leaders — to speak to their group. Major corporate leaders have to be persuaded by another top-level business associate or giant customer to do a favor like that. And that’s where Broad alumni have used their professional clout to help the college shine in the public spotlight. In the case of Ballmer, it was Susan Unger (BA Economics ’72) who asked him to come; Unger is executive vice president and chief information officer for DaimlerChrysler Corporation.

However, the event where Ballmer spoke, known as the Broad Executive Forum, couldn’t have happened without a tight leadership structure in the background in the form of its alumni board of directors. As an entirely alumni-organized project, the Forum is successful because its board members arrange company sponsorships, sell tickets for the event, decide how the daylong event will be organized, and use their professional networks to lure top industry leaders for the popular panel discussion segment that precedes the keynote speech. As Broad graduates are known to do, these board members simply make things happen.

In 2005, the Broad Executive Forum (formerly called the Detroit Management Conference) celebrates 40 years of alumni commitment. According to this year’s chair, John J. Polakowski (BA Marketing ’93), president, Azure Solutions, Inc., the group wants to add new members. “This is a hardworking board that understands how alumni commitment and contributions allow the school to elevate its status and reputation,” he says. “Attracting high profile speakers and participants, and organizing and executing an event like the Broad Executive Forum is a significant undertaking that definitely raises perceptions of the school. The opportunity to work with the school’s leaders and fellow alumni can be a very rewarding experience.” Southeast Michigan alumni of the Broad School who are interested in becoming members of the board can submit resumes at jpolakowski@azuresol.com.

Advisory board energy

The Forum’s alumni board is just one example of how alumni commitment supports the Broad School. Every day of the year, individual alumni recruit on campus, give generous gifts and speak to student organizations. But board membership takes a special kind of commitment, a sustained, “go to meetings and be part of the team” kind of support.

Dave Cosper (BA Financial Administration ’77, MBA Finance ’78), vice chairman and chief financial officer of Ford Motor Credit Company, knows what alumni board membership is all about. He is currently president of the college’s main alumni advisory board, the Eli Broad College of Business Alumni Association Board of Directors. He also is a member of the college’s Capital Campaign Advisory Board and the Finance Advisory Board. “It’s not always easy to attend all the meetings and keep up with the committee work,” he says. “But often, we as alumni can offer valuable insights to the college leadership or help them solve a problem, based on our business expertise. It is satisfying to know that you can have a larger impact on an advisory board than you might have as just an individual.” His colleague on the alumni board, Stuart Jeffares (BA Marketing ’84), agrees. “As a member of one of the college advisory boards, you suddenly become part of the day-to-day Broad School world, a partner with your alma mater, the link between real-world experience and education and research. You can’t help but develop a sense of ownership for what is happening here on campus,” he says. Jeffares, senior manager of Strategic Planning, DaimlerChrysler, is also a member and former chairman of the Broad Executive Forum Board.

That must be true. The Broad School’s newest advisory board, the Marketing Advisory Board, held its first meetings in November and January to discuss the Full-Time MBA Marketing concentration and how they can help students enter the profession successfully. The “new” chair of the board, Rob David (BA Marketing ’78), president, Handyman Productions, is a very familiar face. He is a past president of both the Broad School Alumni Association Board and the Broad Executive Forum Board.