22 Jun 2018

Harvard Business School Welcomes Dwyane Wade As Executive Fellow

Will Teach Rising College Seniors from Diverse Backgrounds in School’s Summer Venture in Management Program
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BOSTON—Dwyane Wade, a professional basketball player for the Miami HEAT of the National Basketball Association (NBA), was invited to speak to students participating in the Harvard Business School Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), a one-week residential educational program for rising college seniors designed to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. Since joining the NBA in 2003, Wade established himself as a dominant player on the court and capitalized on his personal brand to form partnerships with some of the most powerful companies in the world.

In 2016, Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse examined Wade’s approach to brand partnerships in an HBS case study called "Dwyane Wade", which is taught in both the MBA and Executive Education Programs. In 2015, Wade enrolled in the Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports program created by Elberse. He comments on his experience in an interview with Professor Elberse. Wade has been a guest speaker in Elberse’s classes on several occasions since then.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to return to such a highly respected learning community as Harvard Business School,” noted Wade. “I thrive on challenge, and being at Harvard as a student and speaker in Professor Elberse’s class challenged me in completely new ways. I hope to do the same with the students participating in the SVMP program.”

“We look forward to welcoming Dwyane Wade back to our campus as an Executive Fellow to share his remarkable journey with our SVMP participants,” said Professor Elberse. “These students have grown up watching Mr. Wade on the basketball court and now they will get to see another side of him, that of the skilled business practitioner and brand builder. SVMP is designed to inspire students from diverse backgrounds about the opportunities that business education can create for them. I know Mr. Wade will help us to achieve that goal.”

Contacts

Brian Kenny
bkenny+hbs.edu
617-495-6336

ABOUT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL’S SUMMER VENTURE IN MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Harvard Business School’s SVMP program began welcoming diverse college students to campus in 1982 to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. Throughout the week the students are immersed in the School’s renowned Case Method of instruction where HBS faculty lead class discussions on current management issues. Modeled after the MBA program, students spend their evenings analyzing real-business cases, and use morning study groups and classes to examine and debate their ideas through lively interaction with peers and faculty.

Participants are selected based on a variety of factors, including academic achievement, demonstrated leadership, and personal characteristics. Consistent with the objective of promoting educational diversity and opportunity in business leadership, participants must identify as a member of a group that is currently underrepresented in business schools and corporate America (e.g. African American, Latino, Native American, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender). The program is also open to students are the first in their family to attend college or from a school whose graduates are underrepresented in MBA programs (e.g. community or predominantly minority college).

ABOUT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 70 open enrollment Executive Education programs and 55 custom programs, and HBX, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, shaping the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.