$400 million leadership program at Stanford

Stanford, number one business school, is getting $400 million to create leadership programs for the next generation of global leaders.
The money came from Nike’s co-founder Phil Knight.

After earning his MBA from Stanford in 1962 Phil Knight held two jobs:
he was an accountant by day, and a shoe-salesman by night.
Almost ten years later, Nike was born.

Knight strongly believes in education. He said,

“I dream of a future 20, 30, or 50 years from now, when
thousands of graduates – who can think outside the box as skilled
problem-solvers – will be working together for a more peaceful, habitable world.”

The leadership program wants to attract the brightest minds.
And, through a collaborative effort, to find solutions to the challenges we face today.

The process (applications, etc.) is set to start next summer.
Stanford is said to be the most selective school in the country: accepting only 5% of its applicants. (Harvard 5.3, Yale 6.5, Princeton 7).

Perhaps the reason they can be so selective is their well-known graduates (and drop-outs):

• Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal.
• Doris Fisher, started Gap with her husband.
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin – the founders of Google.
• Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO,
  …and the list goes on.

The best kind of help
Knight’s $400 million gift is the largest individual cash gift received by Stanford.
In December I wrote about how your zip code can influence your giving habits.
Wealth affects what charities are chosen to receive generous gifts – higher education is at the top of the list.

High-end, not high-end, education is important across the spectrum.
Giving is helping.
And education is helping people help themselves.
The best kind of help!

Whether you can give hundreds of millions, hundreds of pennies, or anything in between:
what’s important is that you CARE.
You care enough to want to help.

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
Mother Teresa

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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