University Connections

Had another good networking opportunity come up just the other day… Hiring and developing a diverse work force is a key priority for our leadership team, and I’m currently leading a diversity initiative for us. As part of that effort, I reached out to the new Chair of the Marketing Department at Wright State University (Dr. James Munch). I did my undergraduate work at Wright State but its been years since I’ve been back on campus, so I called Jim to learn more about how the program has evolved and to understand the types of students that are currently graduating from the University. Had a great call with him and a couple of nice follow up email exchanges. I’m planning to make a campus visit soon to get set up with their placement office and to see ways to develop a more formal relationship between my agency and the University. The exciting part in terms of my not-for-profit transition is that Jim is also looking to expand his board of advisors and he asked if I’d be interested in participating. For me, this is a no-brainer decision. Educational Institutions often have great connections into the not-for-profit sector so participating as a board advisor makes total sense. I’ll have to see where this one takes me, but it certainly feels like a promising step to be considered.

It also immediately got me thinking about connecting with my other school – Vanderbilt where I did my MBA. I know that Vandy has a number of great philanthropic ties. Most recently, Muhammad Yunus (a Vandy alum) won the Nobel prize for his work on the Grameen bank. The Grameen bank is essentially a micro-lending institution. It allows for entrepreneurs in developing countries to obtain very small loans that help them get their businesses started. Surprisingly, poor entrepreneurs in the developing world have a very difficult time securing funding of even tiny amounts of capital (< $100). They have to pay outrageous interest rates if they go through traditional lending institutions, and this makes getting their small business off the ground almost impossible (the surest way for any business to fail is for it to run out of cash, even that secured through debt). Yunus’ Grameen bank created a vehicle for entreprenuers to secure small loans through a community-style bank. The community aspect of the lending drives very high repayment rates (less than 1% of loans go into default) and numerous businesses have successfully launched that could never have made it in the traditional lending environment. I love to see bottom-up solutions like this that have the potential to scale up. There are now micro-lending institutions popping up all over the developing world – Yunus uncovered the need and provided the necessary market liquidity to improve the lives of many.

For me, this just points up the need for me to reconnect with folks at Vanderbilt. I’m not sure who to reach out to yet, but I know there are valuable connections to be made there…