From the Director of Admissions: Aspirations in Action

The mission of the Yale School of Management is to educate leaders for business and society. The school has articulated three guiding aspirations in support of this mission: to be the most global U.S. business school; to be the business school that is most connected to its home university; and to be the best source of elevated leaders across all regions and sectors. Over the past few weeks, I have witnessed each of these aspirations in action.

In late October, after stops in Seoul and Shanghai, I was in Beijing for the opening of the Yale Center Beijing. This center, which is managed by Yale SOM, provides a hub in China for events and research generated throughout the university. The opening itself drew alumni from many Yale professional schools and Yale College, and is an example of both Yale’s global presence and its interconnectivity. I urge you to watch the online recordings of the panel discussions at the opening, which brought together Yale faculty with leaders from China’s top companies and other organizations to examine some of the key issues facing China and the world.

Then, last week I was fortunate to be back on campus to participate in our Explore Diversity Day event. Diversity, defined broadly, is a core value at Yale SOM and something that directly supports our mission. As our Diversity Vision Statement explains, we believe that “an effective leader for business and society is one who is able to hear, understand and communicate with people from all segments of society.”

Immediately following Explore Diversity, I left for India for more admissions activities before returning to campus this week for, among other things, a meeting of our Community and Inclusion Council, a gathering of students, staff, and faculty to discuss initiatives around diversity here at the school.

At Yale SOM, we believe that leaders for this century will need to be able to understand the global forces shaping organizations (even local organizations), reach across national borders and the boundaries of disciplines and functions to achieve positive outcomes, and incorporate the insights and viewpoints of diverse constituents. We feel that connecting our students to diverse geographies, perspectives, and modes of thoughts will enable them to become the kind of transformational leaders they aspire to be. These past weeks provided some very specific examples of how that is happening.