Notable Alumni
MIT Sloan attracts people who like to make things happen. So it’s no surprise that more than half of our 20,000 alumni are senior executives, and some 20 percent have earned the role of president or CEO. Many are also entrepreneurs: MIT Sloan graduates have founded more than 650 companies. Flourishing in 90 different countries, our alumni include prominent leaders inside and outside the world of business, including:
Former Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, principal federal official and federal coordinating officer for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita recovery efforts, and Deepwater Horizon Response National Incident Commander
Admiral Thad Allen, SF ’89
Former U.N. Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Kofi Annan, SF ’72
CEO of GoLoco and former Zipcar CEO
Robin Chase, SM ’86
Former Hewlett-Packard President and CEO
Carly Fiorina, SF ’89
Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman and former CEO
William Clay Ford Jr., SF ’84
Former President of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Bruce Gordon, SF ’88
President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Michael Kaiser, SM ’77
Former Battelle Memorial Institute President and CEO
Carl Kohrt, SF ’91
Merck Executive Vice President and CFO
Judy Lewent, SM ’72
Cerveceria Polar CA CEO
Lorenzo Mendoza, SM ’93
PA Consulting Group Executive Chairman
Jon Moynihan, SM ’77
Prime Minister of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, SM ’76
Founder and Chairman Emeritus International Securities Exchange E*Trade Group
William (Bill) Porter, SF ’67
Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service
John Potter, SF ’95
Former Chairman and CEO of Citicorp
John Reed, SM ’65
Former Chairman of MFS Investment Management
Jeffrey Shames, SM ’83
President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Former President and CEO of NTT Mobile Comm Inc.
Keiji Tachikawa, SF ’78
Chairman and Former CEO of Symantec
John Thompson, SF ’83
Aetna Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ronald Williams, SF ’84
“It was really rewarding that they wanted to know what we thought. We left there being fairly certain that they will do some of the things that we suggested.”
“I knew about American business, but not enough about what’s really become a global economy. … You can read about it all you want, but there’s no substitute for being there and seeing the context and seeing how completely different these [other countries] are.”
"After we gave our recommendations, the great part was that the very next day the CEO was in the boardroom implementing them with his top vice presidents."
“Because of the diversity of our backgrounds, when we hit the ground in Tanzania it almost was a natural play where different people assume different roles.”
“At MIT Sloan you have a lot of opportunities to explore entrepreneurship. Especially in a place like Kampala where you have a lot of development, entrepreneurship can be very exciting.”
“The concept behind enterprise architecture is that you have all these machines, you have all these business processes, you have all these people doing things, how do you make sure they all come together and achieve business objectives that make you more competitive.”
“The assistant to the CEO was like our host mom while we were there. She arranged our housing for us, she took us out to her friend’s game farm, and we got driven around in 4x4s. She was just wonderful to meet, and we developed a personal as well as professional relationship with her.”
“Our mission, along with the mission of MIT Sloan, is to both develop leaders who make a difference in the world, and also to make a contribution to thinking about the topic of leadership.”
“[The India Lab] program is one of the reasons I came to Sloan. ... The hands-on learning that MIT offers was a huge differentiator.”
“I love being in a place that is such a nexus of people and ideas — people coming to learn something new and to define themselves. Being a part of that process is a real honor and a real gift.”
“We’re very interdisciplinary. Among the faculty in the group are an economist, a political scientist, a sociologist, and an industrial relations specialist. We’ve always made a big effort to be open to a variety of perspectives, but also to go beyond being open to them, to want to bring them in, because it makes for a richer environment.”
“One of the reasons I came to Sloan was because I wanted to be at a top MBA institution worldwide. But I also wanted access to working with the latest innovations and the highest technology that was coming out of the MIT labs.”
“You could talk about watershed management and conservation of energy all you want. But until you put numbers to it and financial analysis to it, you’re not going to get much done. I came to business school to speak that language, speak with people in terms of numbers, financial numbers so that I can get projects done.”
“The conditions in the neighborhoods we were visiting were different than what we realized before getting there. Beyond that, what was surprising was that there weren’t surprises!”
“One of my favorite things about teaching at MIT Sloan is the diversity and high quality of students. They are eager to learn new things, they think independently and they're willing to tackle difficult issues.”
