On June 4th, the day before graduation, the Class of 2003 students, families and faculty will gather for Class Day. Class Day gives us all a chance to reflect on our experiences at HBS and to spend time together the day before Commencement. Events will include a ceremony with a guest speaker, an elected student speaker, and faculty award recipients.
And, now, announcing this year’s speakers…
Guest Speaker: A.G. Lafley
We are delighted to announce that A.G. Lafley, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive of the Proctor & Gamble Company, will be our distinguished Class Day speaker.
Mr. Lafley graduated from Hamilton College with a BA in History and served in the Navy for five years before attending Harvard Business School in the class of 1977. After graduating from HBS, Mr. Lafley joined Proctor & Gamble in Marketing where he held several positions in P&G’s Laundry and Cleaning business. In 1992, Mr. Lafley was named Group Vice President for the Laundry and Cleaning Products business.
In 1995, Mr. Lafley was promoted to Executive Vice President, where he served as President of Proctor & Gamble Asia. Under his stewardship, P&G’s business in China grew from less than $90 million to approximately $1 billion. He also led the Asia business successfully through a currency crisis and the impact of the Kobe, Japan earthquake.
In 1999, Mr. Lafley became the President of Global Beauty Care and North America, which attained record high net sales under his leadership.
Mr. Lafley also focused on developing a global strategy to revitalize the Beauty Care business, with emphasis on innovations in product and marketing.
Mr. Lafley was elected President and Chief Executive of Proctor & Gamble in 2000 and he was named Chairman of the Board in 2002.
During that time, Mr. Lafley has conveyed his vision for P&G’s future growth, leading the 2001 acquisition of Clairol. Mr. Lafley has also focused the Company on consistent delivery of its long-term goals.
Under Mr. Lafley’s leadership, P&G’s stock price has grown from $57 per share to approximately $90.
Mr. Lafley is involved in a number of local and national activities including: Member, Board of Directors, General Motors Corporation; Member, Board of Directors, General Electric Company; Member, The Business Council; Member, The Business Roundtable; Member, Board of Directors, Grocery Manufacturers of America; Member, Board of Trustees, Xavier University; Member, Board of Trustees, Hamilton College; Member, Board of Trustees, Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund; Member, Board of Trustees, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Member, The Lauder Institute Board of Governors (Wharton School of Arts and Sciences); Member, Harvard Club of Cincinnati.
We are honored to have Mr. Lafley as our distinguished Class Day speaker!
Student Speaker: Brendan McGeever, Section OD
Thirty candidates from the Class of 2003 auditioned for the honor of addressing the class on Class Day. During the first round, over 40 volunteer judges representing each of the sections viewed live 3-minute excerpts from the candidate’s speeches. As the volunteer judges will attest, the speeches were exceptional and the competition was intense.
The volunteer judges voted for the five candidates who moved through to the second round. During the second round, the five finalists addressed the EC class live in Spangler auditorium. The entire class had the opportunity to view the speeches via 5-minute video clips and vote through an online poll. We would like to extend a special thank you to all the candidates and judges who participated. Congratulations, Brendan!
Faculty Awards: David Moss, Marc Bertoneche, Das Narayandas, Frances Frei
A few weeks ago, the entire EC class voted in an online election to select two RC professors and two EC professors to receive the faculty award.
The winners of the award were determined as those who had the greatest number of votes as a percentage of the number of students they taught over the two years. The selection criteria for the award were: inspiration, knowledge transfer, accessibility, career guidance, quality of life and feedback. The winners for the RC were David Moss, who taught BGIE to Section A, and Marc Bertoneche, who taught Finance 1 to Sections G & H. The winners for the EC were Das Narayandas, who taught Business Marketing, and Frances Frei, who taught Managing Service Operations. Congratulations faculty award winners!
Questions: Please feel free to contact the Class Day Committee: Darren Jackson djackson@mba2003.hbs.edu, David Russell drussell@mba2003.hbs.edu, Erin Russell eerussell@mba2003.hbs.edu and Tara Hahn thahn@mba2003.hbs.edu.
