IU KELLEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MBA PROGRAM 60TH ANNIVERSARY BOOKLET Section 4
KELLEY ATTRACTS INDUSTRY LEADERS
During its rise to becoming one of the nation’s top MBA programs, Kelley has launched the careers of some of today’s most prominent business leaders. The program’s success has also inspired many alumni to give back and has attracted some of today’s most successful business people to come to campus and share their knowledge.
Giving Back to Move Forward
When Nestlé Brands USA chairman and CEO Brad Alford was an MBA student at Kelley in the late ‘70s, he was inspired by professor of marketing Tom Hustad.
Now, to honor his former professor and the school that helped launch his career, Brad has made a gift of $750,000 to establish the Nestlé Professorship and Fellowship in Marketing, endow a faculty chair—named after Hustad—and provide funding for the Kelley School’s Center for Brand Leadership.
From Brad’s perspective, the gift is a good investment. “Kelley is one of the best places to find the people we need to move our company forward.”
Big Name Brands
It’s the ultimate goal of every marketing professional to develop a dominant brand. In 2007, Kelley’s annual Brand Leadership Conference brought alumni--now in senior positions at PepsiCo, General Mills and other leading companies—to campus to share their insights about working with of America’s most popular brands.
For Jonlee Andrews, associate chair of the MBA program and director of the Consumer Marketing Academy, the conference was a central part of the Kelley’s School’s effort to create a unique community of graduates who can gather and discuss the latest trends in marketing.
“It’s exciting that we are creating a knowledge community here at Kelley where both our current and former students will benefit.”
Mad Money, IU Style
The popular CNBC business program “Mad Money” often does shows at universities with top business schools, including Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown and the University of Michigan.
In 2007, thanks to the efforts of students at the Kelley School, “Mad Money came to IU. Before the show’s taping at Assembly Hall, several MBAs joined the show’s exuberant host and former hedge fund manager, Jim Cramer, for lunch. For 2nd year MBA Scott Marlof, “Mad Money’s presence on campus said a lot about how far Kelley has come as a center for investment studies.
“Jim Cramer’s visit to IU highlights the Kelley School’s development into a destination program for investment-minded students and professionals.”