These 16 movers and shakers in business are Stanford MBA alumni

They may occupy every profession from entrepreneurship to policymaking. But they are all successful Stanford MBA alumni.

Stanford University has produced some notable alumni. This is a key factor that motivates many to choose to get an MBA degree from here.  It’s an open secret that all MBA students should network for the duration of their studies.

Building a diverse network gives these students a huge advantage in terms of finding jobs after graduation. It’s this network that provides many of these alumni with jobs throughout their professional lives.

When people are in an MBA program, they are presented with many valuable opportunities. One of these is the chance to build friendships that will last a long time with people who are already rich and powerful or will become rich and powerful. They can forge these relationships with people in different departments and schools. For example, they can make friends in Stanford’s medical and law schools.

Many alumni find that they can find many useful mentors in their vast network. They can also collaborate on many unannounced professional projects.

Stanford recently appeared in a Bloomberg article. This article stated that Stanford had the best MBA alumni network. The authors surveyed over 15,000 alumni and all rated Stanford #1 for quality, range, and responsiveness.

Their relationship with Stanford doesn’t end at graduation either. Alumni can access job postings, events, job fairs, networking opportunities, and all of Stanford’s alumni.

One of the reasons why Stanford alumni are so successful throughout their professional lives is because of the strong (alumni) network that they are a part of. In fact, Stanford produces the most successful professionals than any other university. Stanford alumni excel as entrepreneurs, CEOs, philanthropists, and more!

16 of the most outstanding alumni from Stanford’s MBA program are described in more detail below:

Penny Pritzker

She received her Stanford MBA in 1984. Penny has held many high-profile positions throughout her professional career. For example, she was the former US Secretary of Commerce, a business owner, and a high-profile philanthropist.

She was the US Secretary of Commerce for one term of Obama’s administration. She has successfully launched five companies. Two of them are PSP Capital Partners and Pritzker Realty Group.

She helped to found Artemis Real Estate Partners. Penny is famous in Chicago (her hometown) for her notable philanthropy work.

Her net worth as of 2015 was US$2.4 billion.

Mary Barra

Mary graduated from Stanford’s MBA program in 1990. She is currently the CEO of General Motors. She began an internship at General Motors in 1980. Mary has stuck with the same company throughout her professional career and has (obviously) risen through the ranks.

She was promoted to the CEO position in 2014. Mary has been mentioned in high-profile business magazines. For example, Fortune named her as the world’s most powerful woman in 2017. Forbes names her as the second most powerful woman in the world the next year!

Victor Koo

He received a Stanford MBA degree in 1994. He became a billionaire in 2010 when his six-year-old video website Youku was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

He launched its rival Toudu two years later. His first website became one of the most widely and frequently used in China. More than 500 million people use it today. It gets more than 800 million video views a day.

Jeffrey Skoll

He graduated from Stanford’s MBA program in 1995. He became E-bay’s first president. His other outstanding accomplishments include being a noted filmmaker and philanthropist.

He had a great idea as a newly minted MBA. he drafted and implemented an outstanding business plan. Voila! E-bay was born! This plan transformed E-bay from a fledgling startup to a corporation with a yearly revenue turnover in the many billions of dollars. Oh, and you can find E-bay in 30 nations around the world.

Jeffrey frequently appears in the news for his commendable philanthropist work. He currently owns a film company – Participant Media. This company has produced many highly acclaimed films and documentaries. One of these is Syriana, an inconvenient truth, and Spotlight. Incidentally, Spotlight won an Oscar award almost 5 years ago (2016) for best picture.

Jacqueline Novogratz

She graduated from Stanford’s MBA program in 1991. Jacqueline founded Acumen. She currently is its CEO.

Jacqueline uses her vast business knowledge and acumen to make Acumen Fund a thriving non-profit. She couldn’t have done this without a Stanford MBA degree. The objective of Acumen Fund is to motivate poor people to start small businesses as a way to get out of poverty.

She has currently invested US$122 million. The money helped start 122 enterprises globally. She has also invested US$611 million to bring basic services (like water and electricity) to 260 million people.

Miles D. White

He got his MBA degree from Stanford in 1980. He currently works as chairman and CEO of Abbott Laboratories. Miles began his career with Abbot Laboratories in 1984. He became Chairman of the Board through an election in 1999. He is the longest-tenured CEO of an S&P 100 company.

One of Miles’s outstanding achievements was to create US$200 million in value for shareholders during his tenure. Another outstanding achievement was to serve as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He was also chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Sam Yagan

He graduated with a Stanford MBA in 2005. He helped found the online dating site OkCupid. He was one of two founders of the startup companies SparkNotes.com and Excelerate Labs.

Sam has led other well-known and successful startups. Two of these are Match.com and eDonkey. He currently runs the successful startup ShopRunner.

Time magazine named him as being one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013.

Phil Night

He graduated with a Stanford MBA degree in 1962. Phil was co-founder and Chairman of Emeritus of Nike Corporation. He had a net worth of US$37.6 billion in October of 2019. Forbes listed him as the world’s 21st richest person that year.

He owns a stop-motion animation studio called Laika. This studio has produced many high-quality and highly-acclaimed movies. Some of these are Coraline, Kubo, and Two Strings. He has contracted with others to make many other movies.

He donates heavily to sports education charities.

Sir Howard Davies

He graduated with a Stanford MBA degree in 1979. Sir Howard Davies served in two admirable positions. The first was as Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The second was as Director of the London School of Economics.

Davies has also been CEO of several high-profile and large corporations. Some of these were Morgan Stanley and Prudential PLC. He’s served as an advisor to British, Chinese, and Singaporean advisory boards.

Davies is interested in studying more than Economics though. He’s been on the selection committee for the Man Booker Prize. He’s been a trustee of the National Gallery and he’s been on the board of the National Theatre.

Seth Godin

He’s a 1984 Stanford MBA Alumni

Seth is fondly referred to as the ‘Business Guru.’ He launched Yoyodyne and Squidoo. Seth is an ace in terms of powerhouse marketing and management. He has his own successful blog, a podcast, and he’s a TED Talks presenter. Seth has also written more than 20 books.

Some of his best and most famous books are the Free Prize Inside (this won the Forbes Business Book of the Year award in 2004,) The Purple Cow, and The Dip.

Seth started a Kickstarter campaign in 2013. It successfully raised $250,000. The money funded The Icarus Deception: Why Make Art?

Stephen Luczo

He graduated from Stanford’s MBA program in 1984.

Stephen is always in the news for being a Seagate Executive and a philanthropist. He’s chaired the data storage firm Seagate. He’s also been its CEO twice. What put him in the news was the fact that he raised Seagate’s stock value by 1,600% in 2009. It then became one of the best-performing stocks on the S&P index.

He’s active in the philanthropic realm too. He’s done admirable work in terms of conserving the environment, helping at-risk kids, and making generous contributions to education. He’s been knighted by the Vatican and he’s gotten many honorary titles from the Italians and Malaysians.

Jeff Bewkes

He got his MBA degree from Stanford in 1977

He’s now a noted media executive. Jeff has been a driving force behind trends in modern culture. It started when he was CEO of HBO. He pushed to air the original series on the channel. A good example of this is The Sopranos.

He eventually became Chairman of Time Warner Media. Jeff also managed HBO Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Bros, and New Line Cinema. He had HBO divest from AOL, Time Inc, and Time Warner Cable.

Ole Andreas Halvorsen

He got his MBA degree from Stanford in 1990. Ole is currently the CEO of Viking Global Investments.

He was born in Norway and he began his career by excelling in his MBA program. This landed him a position at Morgan Stanley upon graduation. He rose through the ranks and became the Director of Equities at Tiger Management Corp.

He co-founded Viking Global Investments. This is a hedge fund. It managed US$24 billion in money and assets in 2017.

Mariam Naficy

She got her MBA degree from Stanford University in 1998. Mariam co-founded Eve.com. She is currently its CEO. She founded Minted.com.

Eve.com was the first e-commerce store for makeup. She sold her company for US$100 million in 2000. Her second startup has since become a successful store for crowd-sourced, competitive custom designed stationery. It has its modest roots as an online store that sold stationery.

About 70 million homes use Minted.com’s products.

Charles Schwab

He got his MBA degree from Stanford in 1961.

Charles started the investment firm, Charles Schwab. He also served as its chairman for a while. Charles came up with the innovative idea of selling equity securities at a discount in 1975 and has never looked back since. Charles Schwab became the industry leader in equity securities.

He officially retired in 2008. Forbes listed his net worth as more than US$8 billion in 2017.

Vinod Khosla

He got his Stanford MBA degree in 1980.

Vinod is a successful Tech entrepreneur. He also invests heavily in tech startups.

He was one of two people who founded Sun Microsystems in America’s Silicon Valley. He’s now CEO of Khosla Ventures. This is a venture capital company that manages US$1 billion in investment money..

He’s an ardent environmental activist. For example, Vinod invested heavily in companies that were trying to turn ethanol into biofuel.