Partners of 63: Reconnecting for Social Change
Social Enterprise Newsletter, Spring 2003
During lunch one afternoon three years ago, Fred Joseph (MBA '63) asked former classmate Charley Ellis (MBA '63) what he planned to do when he finished his career with Greenwich Associates. "I'd like to do something to say, 'Thank you, America, I've had a wonderful time,'" Ellis recalls telling him. Joseph told him he felt the same way, and they surmised that many of their classmates had similar feelings. They decided to invite more classmates to a future lunch to discuss what they planned to do with the next phase of their lives. The group eventually grew to a membership of more than 30 classmates from across the country, who met eight times for up to a day at a time over the course of a year.
During the meetings, the group was enlightened by presentations from individuals who had experience running foundations and other experts on educational needs in America. Among their guests were John Whitehead (MBA '47) and Steve Nelson (MBA '88), then executive director of the Initiative on Social Enterprise and currently executive director of the HBS MBA Program. After one year of planning, the group decided to focus its efforts on established initiatives in education, emphasizing children in difficult circumstances. They felt that this was a source of critical problems in society that needed to change, and with their collective know-how and network of resources, they could offer significant pro bono help to talented people with promising ideas.
As they began, they expected that some of the greatest needs they would encounter would be financial. "But it turns out," Ellis explains, "that the real needs were for experience, ideas, and the willingness to spend time working with people to help them reach their goals. We decided to find some dreams and see if we could help." Among the programs the Partners of 63 support are:
- The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit consulting group that partners with school, state, and other educational institutions to recruit, select, train, and support outstanding new teachers.
- FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), which inspires and motivates high-school students to pursue studies and careers in science, engineering, and technology. Partners of 63 members are involved as volunteers, judges, or team mentors for FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Lego League events.
- Parents First, a program designed by the Yale Child Study Center to provide parenting skills for disadvantaged families, with special emphasis on the critical first three years of a child's development.
- Education Leadership, for which Partners of 63 members have played a leadership role in mobilizing their classmates to encourage and support the work of HBS and Harvard Graduate School of Education in jointly developing programs for public school leaders. (See related announcement below in "In brief.")
- Today, the Partners of 63 includes 85 members. Ellis finds it particularly enjoyable to be doing such meaningful work with former classmates. "This is a group of people who bonded together years ago," he says, "and we see today how strong those threads of connection have remained." He believes that the goals of the Partners of 63 are very much in line with the Harvard Business School mission of educating leaders who make a difference in the world. "It's right down that alley, no question," he says. "This is really interesting, fun work that can be effective because we have these abilities and sharing is not very hard. It's rewarding to see our knowledge passed on and put to good use."