Business, Government, and Society Forum Looks at New Demands on Leadership
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural Business, Government, and Society forum. Powell was interviewed by professor Arvind Krishnamurthy. | Photo by SF Photo Agency
Event highlights the importance of business and government collaboration to solve contemporary problems.
Leaders from business, non-profit organizations, government, and academia gathered at Stanford Graduate School of Business on April 3, 2024, to share their experiences — and differing perspectives — on the evolving challenges of leadership in a rapidly changing world.
The forum, “Responsible Leadership in a Polarized World,” was hosted by the Stanford GSB Business, Government, & Society Initiative and featured keynote speakers Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe, MS ’05. Participants engaged in a day of conversation on issues ranging from how business and government can collaborate for a sustainable future, to the responsibility business leaders hold for the health and wellness of their constituents.
“Today, leadership is not only about delivering a great product and getting to profitability. It’s also taking into account diverse stakeholders and making sure the organization you’re leading is mindful of the implications of its decisions on other groups,” says Maria Frantz, MBA ’94, BG&S Initiative director. “With this initiative, we want to position the business school to take on these sticky, complex, sometimes divisive issues, bring diverse perspectives together, and widen the scope of what leadership and management education includes.”
The initiative was launched with recommendations from a task force of GSB alumni, faculty, and staff led by Ken Shotts, PhD ’99, the David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy at Stanford GSB, and Jim Coulter, MBA ’86, and CEO of TPG Capital.
It includes a $10 million pilot research fund that supports more than 65 collaborative research projects, the addition of new classes and academic content, and a commitment to bringing a range of distinguished practitioners and policymakers to the GSB to collaborate with faculty and students — as in this thought-provoking, conversation-sparking inaugural forum.
Read the full, original story and learn what the forum’s keynote speakers and others had to say about leadership in challenging times.
