Before HBS, I moved to Kenya so that I could work on critical infrastructure projects and help build the foundation of countries. While contributing to some of the largest energy and transportation projects in the region was rewarding, I realized that none of the projected development would materialize without a healthy population. It became clear that global health was an integral component to development and that an “investment in human capital, partly through global health, is a prerequisite to inclusive economic growth” (Former president of World Bank, Jim Yong Kim). This summer I sought out to test a hypothesis of mine that led me to apply to business school: that the skills developed through an MBA could contribute to solving some of the world’s toughest global health issues. [...]

This post is part of our Social Enterprise Initiative 25th anniversary blog series, which highlights some of the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have been a part of SEI throughout the years. In this post, Laura Oller (MBA/MPP 2019) describes the social impact she seeks to have in the world and shares her vision for the future of social enterprise at HBS. [...]

This post is part of our Social Enterprise Initiative 25th anniversary blog series, which highlights some of the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have been a part of SEI throughout the years. In this post, HBS student Azeez Gupta (MBA 2019), shares his perspective on social enterprise. [...]

Before coming to HBS, I worked for a number of years in financial services in Asia. It was not uncommon for me to wonder what real benefit, other than to provide my clients with the ability to make more money, I was providing to the world. That desire is one of the reasons I wanted to come to HBS. I recently took the class “Investing in the 21st Century: Return, Risk and Impact,” taught by Professors Shawn Cole and Vikram S. Gandhi. Through this class I learned that my previous career could actually provide a positive impact on the world, and that impact investing is becoming more mainstream in the United States. There are many impact funds that manage to achieve market rates of return while at the same time generate positive impact. In the past decade, the ability to measure impact has improved, enhancing the investor’s confidence in this sector. [...]

This year, we will be highlighting the work of social enterprise related student clubs at HBS. In this blog, hear from 2018-19 Consulting for Impact Club co-presidents: Francie Alexandre and Andrea Frederick (both HBS ’19). [...]