My father is a graduate of Harvard Business School. HBS's alumni association (not exactly sure if it's actually the alumni association, but I am guessing it is) creates a "profile" book for each graduating class of HBS every 5 or 10 years (any year that there is a class reunion).
At a minimum, the profile book contains each alumnus's name, the section they were affiliated with when they were a student at HBS and their current city/country of residence. Some people's profiles only contain the absolute bare minimum, other people have photos and very detailed entries about the various minutiae in their lives (career, family, etc.)
I flipped through the thing pretty casually, but some notable names that caught my eye:
Jamie Dimon
Mr. Dimon's profile only contained the bare minimum. His name, section at HBS, and current job title:
Chairman & CEO of JP Morgan
I guess when one becomes the head of a major bank on Wall Street, one simply can't be bothered to spend time on trivialities such as their business school's alumni profile book...
Stephen Mandel
Mr. Mandel was also another bare minimum profile. Interestingly, it appears he met his wife while they were both students together at HBS. There was a profile of a "Susan Zadek Mandel" which I assume is his wife.
Seth Klarman
Mr. Klarman was the opposite of Dimon and Mandel. He provided a recent picture of himself and wrote up a lengthy entry about Baupost plus some personal stuff such as the adjustment he and his wife are making to being empty nesters, what their kids are up to now (interestingly, Mr. Klarman's son appears to be a professional musician?), etc. All in all, he seemed like a very nice, down-to-earth guy who hasn't let his success/wealth get to his head.
Aside from these notables, however, the vast majority of people had profiles that were more modest. Obviously, not everyone can become CEO of a major publicly traded company or start their own successful hedge fund... It was not uncommon to see profiles such as "Senior VP of blah-blah-blah division at XYZ privately-held company"
It makes me wonder whether Seth Klarman would have still had the same level of success if he had not attended HBS. My guess is that with or without HBS, the end result would still be the same (Either way, he would still start and run a successful hedge fund). Or perhaps I am underestimating the amount of serendipity that is required to achieve success on the scale of Seth Klarman...?
fuck seth klarman.....jk
Klarman is a legend. I got curious based on your post, so I found this HBS write-up on Google. Great stuff. https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=713
Is your father in the same class as Jeffrey Immelt, Steve Burke, Stephen Mandel, Seth Klarman and Jamie Dimon? According to google all these titans went to HBS together.
Good catch! I totally missed Jeffrey Immelt and Steve Burke (to be fair, though, I flipped through the profile book very quickly/haphazardly)
The point I was trying to make still stands though. For every person who has achieved success on a level that you would recognize their name, there are between 50-100 people you have never heard of...
and that ratio is for hbs grads..... what's the ratio for general population?
If everyone from HBS became uber successful the world would be run by HBS grads. The better comparison is # of CEOs / # of grads across MBA programs
Interesting point.
Thank you for sharing this. Was your father also a minimalist with his description or did he write a detailed post, like Mr. Klarman?
I would say somewhere in the middle. He didn't provide a photo of himself like Klarman did, but the entry he wrote up was decent. I'd say about 80-90% was focused on himself. 10%-20% on his family. He briefly mentioned the ages of his children (which obviously includes me and my siblings), but he didn't get into details. For comparison, Klarman was a 50/50 split between himself and his family (Gee, I guess Klarman is the better father...)
i bet the minimalist responses were written by staff vs. lengthy entries by the subjects themselves.
So...are you trying to tell us HBS produces highly successful individuals? Mind blown
HBS graduates some 900 people a year so no, not all of them will necessarily be destined for Master of the Universe status. HBS is still a fantastic launching pad, but it's by and large taking folks who are already a) super talented b) highly connected or c) both and hands them a network and access to recruiters. Even the ones who "only" top out at VP are comfortably ahead of the pack relative to the country at large. Luck plays a role. Ambition also plays a role: priorities change as people get older, start families or change interests. So there's no real secret sauce-you get the top prospects you'll more likely see the best outcomes.
spot on, I hope everyone that didn't already know this reads your comment
Brings up the interesting discussion of whether they would have made it without Harvard though. If you're smart enough to get into Harvard; maybe, you don't actually need Harvard. Certainly never hurts your chances though.
Amen. +1
"Deo et Patriae Just curious, roughly what percentage of those graduates were working in finance?
Depends on your definition of "finance" If you mean strictly banking, private equity/venture capital, and hedge funds, I would say about a quarter. If you broaden the scope to include "finance" roles at traditional companies, real estate, etc., then maybe its closer to a third. Keep in mind this is the class of 1982. Back then, the dream job for most MBAs was to go to work for a big conglomerate in a fast-track management position towards the executive suite. It was not until the 90s that people started viewing the MBA as a ticket for a career on Wall Street.
Your dad was part of the legendary class of 1982: one of the most successful ever in HBS history.
But yes, the vast majority of HBS alums (or any school for that matter) become reasonably well-to-do professionals making comfortable six figures. Nothing more, nothing less.
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