Stanford Magazine - January/February 2012

New GSB Institute
Will Tackle Poverty
$150 million gift backs
an enterprising approach.
MISSION
The starkest economic facts have pro-
duced an extraordinarily generous initiative
based at Stanford: an institute that launches
with a $150 million gift and will grapple with
the world’s worst poverty.

The funding comes from Dorothy and Robert King, MBA ’ 60, for the establishment of the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies at the Graduate School of Business. The vision—the result of years of thought and examination about ways to tackle the planet’s most desperate living conditions— o;ers a scenario that combines education and research with feet-on-the-ground entrepreneurship and employment goals in impoverished communities.

“The big issue for us is there are a
billion people living on $1.25 a day. That’s
not right,” says Robert King. “We need
to change that. . . . When we know we’ve
changed 200 million lives, we’ll know we’re
on our way.”
The Kings have given $100 million to
get SIIDE—dubbed “SEED”—under way.
They’ve also committed another $50 million
in matching funds to inspire other potential
donors. The gift is among the largest ever
received by Stanford, and President John
Hennessy took note of the “foresight and
compassion” that underpins an e;ort “that
leverages Stanford’s knowledge, resources
and human capital.”

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ARCHIVES

GSB professor and supply-chain expert Hau Lee will lead the institute. Professor Jesper Sorensen, faculty director of the Center for Social Innovation at the GSB, will spearhead the education and dissemination endeavors. Professor Jim Patell, along with Bill Meehan, a lecturer in strategic management and director emeritus of McKinsey & Co., will direct the on-the-ground activities. Nobel laureate and GSB dean emeritus A. Michael Spence will chair the advisory board.

“We don’t want to be naïve—it’s huge-
ly complicated,” Robert King says. “But I

ON THE GROUND: Karen Hart, MBA ’09, on a service learning trip to India.

really believe the status and significance
of Stanford is going to make a lot of these
things happen.”
The institute will strive to stimulate
innovations and research that foster
leadership, problem solving and business
operations with the help of in-the-field
managers who can explore improvements in
management, infrastructure and academic
course development. The issue might be
transportation and supply logistics, health
care needs or mobile communications, all
served by supporting local action with multi-
disciplinary research and training.

Much of the inspiration for the institute was spurred by decades of homestays by international students with the Kings, who became close observers of the far-reaching impact made by education and entrepreneurship. In the initial announcement of the institute, Dorothy King described the power of dinner conversation with a student from Zimbabwe who was visiting along with peers from her global study trip to Africa.

“We heard how those first-hand
experiences compelled some of the MBAs
to return for internships in Africa,” she
notes. “We saw the direct connection
between the learning experience and the
motivation to make change.”
The institute plans partnership
activities with a variety of organizations
that have operations abroad, including
Endeavor, which mentors the work of
high-impact entrepreneurs; Omidyar
Network, a philanthropic investment
firm; the Skoll Foundation, which invests
in social entrepreneurs; and global social
enterprise investor Acumen Fund. ■