Good evening and welcome. I am Judy Samuelson, Director of the Business
and Society program at the Aspen Institute. It is a great pleasure to welcome
you to this celebration tonight.

Especially those of you who day to day, year on year, have been working to
assure that our business schools—not just here in the US where the MBA
was hatched, but in all continents of the globe—working to assure that
management education delivers on its promise of preparing a generation of
leaders for a global sustainable society.

I realize that these words—global sustainable society, are a mouthful. The
global part is easy perhaps, but the ideas that are embedded in the term
“sustainable” society are evolving in a just-in-time fashion. For some
sustainability connotes green technology, for others it is about creating
economic opportunity and new definitions of wealth and justice—and there
are many many more aspects of a global sustainable society that the people
who work here at the Ford Foundation and in the many organizations
represented here—from industry to finance to community economic
development to philanthropy to academia—that you all bring to life by your
work and investment.

The reason I am so excited to be here, tonight, among all of you, is because
those of you who we gather to honor—both faculty and schools—are giving
greater definition to the practices of global sustainability as you conduct the
research to connect theory and action, and test the best bridges between
ideals and the practical realities of managing a business, assessing risk,
laying out a vision and strategy that attracts both talent and capital. The
work you do is not always easy, but it is important. In fact, I think it is noble

work. And tonight we pause to celebrate your extraordinary accomplishments.

 

Read more...