Congratulations and welcome to the MSx Class of 2020.
I'm Margaret Hayes, Associate Dean of the MSx program, and I'm so
thrilled to be part of the Class of 2020 celebration today.
Let me start by saying how proud I am of how much you've accomplished and
how you've come together as a cohort over this last year,
especially in this last quarter.
Of course, your year ended differently than we expected with the pandemic.
Now, more than ever, the world needs innovative and thoughtful leaders.
In fact, some of you answered the call and
returned to your home countries during spring quarter to help.
You make me optimistic about the future.
I also want to say a special welcome and thank you to your families and friends.
As you know, taking a year to invest in yourself at this point in your life
affects not just you but also your families.
Please join me in thanking the spouses, partners, parents, and youngest
honorary members of the MSx class for supporting you throughout this journey.
We cannot tackle ambitious goals alone, and
those who help us deserve our appreciation.
While this celebration is not your official commencement,
we are excited to mark this momentous day with you now.
We're going to hear from Senior Associate Dean,
Paul Oyer, and some MSx alumni who have well wishes for you.
In addition, we'll have a photo and
video montage highlighting some of your memories of your time wih the GSB.
This video was created using your incredible contributions and
should be reflective of your time here.
You'll then have an opportunity together virtually with your class.
Let's kick off the celebration.
>> Welcome again to all of the graduates and
their guests, as well as faculty and alumni.
I'm Senior Associate Dean, Paul Oyer.
Class of 2020,
you began this journey last July with high expectations and excitement.
Summer quarter was filled with economics, negotiations, and other core courses.
You finished the summer quarter with a memorable study trip to New York and
Washington, DC.
Autumn quarter introduced you to elective courses to complement more
of the core curriculum.
You enjoyed the winter break, marking the halfway point of your journey.
Winter quarter gave you a chance to dive headlong into
the GSB's incredible electives.
And yet that all seems so long ago now because everything, and
I mean everything, changed in March.
Between the global pandemic and the current unrest in the United States,
you are finishing in a way no prior MSx graduating class has ever experienced.
Many of you have faced tremendous personal challenges
brought on by government policy and dramatic economic change.
This wasn't the spring you imagined, but
we are very proud of how your class faced these challenges,
came together as a community, and exhibited resilience and compassion.
You exemplified how a community can be socially distant while
being emotionally closer than ever.
And in the last few weeks, you made Stanford proud
by being part of this national conversation around racial justice.
This is the end of your time at the GSB, but it's just the beginning
of putting your GSB experience to use for yourselves and for the world.
We are counting on you.
As you leave Stanford, the United States and the whole world are facing
unprecedented social, economic, and public health challenges.
The world needs talented people like you to rise to this challenge and
to strive for something greater than yourselves.
It won't always be easy.
Hopefully you learned a lot about how to think critically at the GSB.
But none of your textbooks or course notes are going to give you the answers
to turning around a company when they economy stops.
Or to changing the path of a warming planet.
Or figuring out the best way to fight for social justice.
As that great philosopher, Charlie Brown of the Peanuts comic strip once said,
in the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.
Dig deep and find those answers, we know you can.
And with that, congratulations on your tremendous accomplishment.
Best wishes and take some time to enjoy the moment.
Then go out there and make us all proud that what you endured in your
final quarter at the GSB has made you and your community stronger and
more determined than we could have ever imagined.
>> Dear class of 2020, congratulations.
I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
I was asked to share a few thoughts.
Given how dark things are right now,
it's honestly been hard to find the right words.
One thing I did really want to say, however, is that no matter where you
are in the world and how dark things may be right now, and how long it will be
until you return to campus, I hope you won't forget the spirit of our quad.
One of the things that COVID has most affected and one of the things that I love
the most about the GSB is our central plaza, the quadrangle.
It is arguably the most optimistic place on the planet.
California has always been a land of optimists,
with folks leaving everything to rush here to find gold and being willing to ignore
the inevitability of earthquakes and all kinds of things like that.
But our quad has always been special, even within California.
In normal times, folks are always there thinking and
talking about how to save the world and do well at the same time.
It's open, sunny, and inclusive, a magnet for the rest of campus.
Its spirit is also infectious, even for the most jaded of the faculty.
I've been back east a number of times to talk with policymakers and agencies.
I've always been struck by how at GSB, and
at Stanford more generally, we're able to retain the old can do spirit here.
A willingness to try new things, even while elsewhere folks might be
becoming more insular and reaching out for the familiar in times of trouble.
It was not always so.
When I joined the GSB, we were still in the south building.
It was a brutalist structure built in the 1960s, a time a bit like our own.
One of great tremendous opportunities for change, but also great social upheaval.
This was also a time when buildings were often explicitly designed to limit
people's ability to meet together in large numbers.
Even when I joined the GSB faculty 40 years later, the legacies of that time
still affected our lives, backed up as they were in walls and concrete.
Our classrooms tended to lack windows, our Bucho Cafe was in a dark basement,
away from the sun, and our GSB buildings were far from an inclusive magnet.
I think that particularly now when things are looking really dark, the chances for
making change are the strongest, and
these changes can go in very different directions.
Yet the decisions we make now as individuals, groups, organizations, and
societies can last a very long time.
Your class may be the last in a while to have experienced the quad at its most
optimistic and open.
I hope that we can carry some of that spirit with us so it stays alive and
we entrench our shared values, optimism, and hope, rather than fear.
One of Mahatma Gandhi's favorite poems was written by Rabindranath Tagore.
It starts, [FOREIGN], which means if no one responds to your call,
then keep on going on your path alone.
We are deeply lucky at the GSB that even though we might embark on a highly risky
business or research path to begin with, if we keep at it,
we can always find people of common spirit willing to join and support us.
Just like if we were hanging out over coffee at Cooper cafe.
I hope that the spirit of our quad will help you along the way, and
you'll be willing to spread that spirit to others, and
that we can meet again there soon and celebrate your great achievement today.
Congratulations once more, and I look forward to that day, bye.
>> Congratulations to the Stanford GSB Class of 2020 on your graduation.
I am so proud of all of you for
taking this amazing transformation once in a lifetime journey.
It is for the courageous ones like you,
who push themselves to learn new things and grow as human beings and as leaders.
I believe this is not an end, but just a beginning.
I cannot wait to see amazing things you all will do from here on to change lives,
change organizations, and change the world >> I feel for
all of you for missing out on the usual fun and celebrations of the last semester,
but from what I hear, you've kept going, you've been supporting one another, and
you are the closest class ever.
It is time like this when Stanford University, its alumni, and
the Bay Area will innovate and disrupt the world for the better.
And with your MSx degree in hand,
it is now that you are equipped to make a difference.
>> These are unprecedent times.
I hope you and your families are all staying safe and well.
I just want to reach out and wish you congratulations.
It's amazing to see this accomplishment for all of you.
And I'm an optimist in general, and I know you're going to do great things in your
future and contribute unbelievable things to society.
>> The world you left is completely different to the one you're returning to,
and this new world needs you more than ever.
It needs your dreams, it needs your energy, it needs your talent.
Clearly you have all the tools, or
many of the tools needed to succeed and to make your dreams come true.
>> Social distancing, unemployment, bankrupt industries, social injustice.
Not the values the GSB was founded on but you fought through it, and
today you are officially GSB alumni.
Ten years ago, you would not imagine you'd be here today.
But you fought hard.
And ten years from now, you'll look back on the choices you made tomorrow.
And we have great excitement and optimism about what you will do.
>> This is a moment of immense challenge, but also of great opportunity.
The world needs leaders, leaders like you,
to deal with the consequences of this pandemic, and of climate change.
We need the best and the brightest in the private sector, in government, and
in the social sector to rebuild the world economy based on inclusive capitalism.
Go out there and own the moment and delight us with your genius and grit.
>> Nature is really much more powerful than any business or government.
I hope you remember this.
It doesn't mean that you are powerless, far from it.
But it does mean you have a great responsibility to put people, society, and
the natural environment at the heart of every decision you make.
I've been in business now for more than 50 years, and
been through many, many ups and downs.
So let me assure that in spite of everything that you see as you embark
on the next step of your journey, the best is always yet to come.
>> I understand that this is a very difficult moment for a lot of us,
uncertainty.
However, I implore you to lean into your privilege.
I implore you to catalyze your education, to create the change that we know needs to
happen in our world because the future is bright because you're in it.
The world will heal because you will do the work.
This is my sincerest hope that you will take this new opportunity to
craft a strategy to change how the world grows.
We love you, we appreciate you, we celebrate you.
Welcome to the family, welcome to the alumni association [LAUGH].
To all the things that happen after graduating at GSB because it is
a beautiful ride.
The work begins now.
Keep going, Class of 2020, we need you, peace.
>> Congratulations once again.
Here's to the Class of 2020.
>> Congratulations, Class of 2020.
>> Congratulations to all of you for reaching this important milestone and
welcome to the Stanford alumni family.
>> Alexa, what do you have to say to the Stanford Business School class?
>> Hurray, congratulations.
This is a huge milestone and I wish you all luck in your future endeavors.
>> Give it your best, work hard, and what can I say?
May the force be with you.
>> Here's to you all.
I raise a toast, congratulations.
[MUSIC]
>> Dear MSx class of 2020, I wish you all the luck that got
you here to this special place for the rest of your lives.
>> Dear class of MSx 2020, I wish you guys all tons of joy and
contentment in whatever you choose to pursue.
>> I wish that everyone takes the love of learning and
intellectual curiosity that we've gotten here into their daily lives.
[MUSIC]
My Sloan fellows, I hope you solve for what matters most to you and
I hope to help you do it.
[MUSIC]
>> [FOREIGN] I wish you all always remember why you came here.
[MUSIC]
>> Dear Msx Class of 2020, obviously best MSx vintage ever, congratulations to us.
It was an honor to share this journey and experience with you.
And it's hard to imagine that we're already coming to its end.
Wherever we may be or
go after this, I want you to know that you will always have a friend from Austria.
And in the words of Rick Blaine from Casablanca, we'll always have Stanford.
I hope we manage to stay in touch, and I wish you all the best for
whatever your future may hold.
>> Dear graduating class of 2020, I wish all the connections that we've
made in this year with each other stay in our hearts forever, thank you.
[MUSIC]
>> I hope you enjoyed the celebration of your time with the GSB.
I loved watching the past year,
your year on unfold through your stories in your videos and photos.
Thank you for sharing them with all of us.
On some level, all GSB graduations are bittersweet.
This one especially so, given our inability to celebrate together.
However, we will have an opportunity together in person with an official GSB
commencement ceremony at a later date.
Of course, that usual celebration will be a traditional way to close an academic
experience.
But I expect that for many of us, the best part will be being together again,
seeing how much your children have grown, and
sharing those warm smiles, hugs, and stories in Town Square.
Congratulations, Class of 2020.
I can't wait to see how you change lives, change organizations, and change the world