GSB receives gifts for new M.B.A. leadership program

Beginning next Fall Quarter, five M.B.A. students in the University’s Graduate School of Business will participate in a newly developed fellowship program that combines the school’s most generous scholarship support with a practicum focused on leaders in and outside of business.

The program, known as the Distinguished Fellows Program, names each fellow in honor of either a GSB Nobel laureate or a former GSB dean and provides in excess of $100,000 of support over the period of a two-year M.B.A. education.

In addition, Harry Davis, the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management in the GSB, will mentor the group and lead them in an exploration of how leaders in various settings make an enduring and positive impact on their organizations and society.

“More than defining a new level of financial support for these exceptional students, the programmatic content will provide the Distinguished Fellows with a deeper understanding of leadership,” said Edward Snyder, Dean and Professor of Economics in the GSB.

“The practicum will provide students with one-on-one conversations with individuals and organizations who have made a significant difference through leadership and creativity,” Davis added.

The Distinguished Fellows Program was established through two major gifts. Philip Purcell (M.B.A., ’67) and his wife, Anne, have committed $4.25 million, $3.75 million of which is in the form of a challenge grant. Purcell is chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley. J. William Uhrig (M.B.A., ’84) and his wife, Anastasia Vournas, have committed $1 million to the program. Uhrig is managing director of Three Cities Research, a private equity firm in New York.

When the program is fully funded it will represent the largest single endowment within the GSB for the support of M.B.A. students.

“The academic component of the M.B.A. program at the University is unparalleled by any other school,” said Matt Niksch, who has been selected as the first John Jeuck Distinguished Fellow. “The flexibility of the curriculum will allow me to explore several different areas of business during my studies,” he said.