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Continued from previous page
Doing well and Doing Good: Social Impact Management
Eileen Stephens, WG'03, is one of many students continuing
the Wharton traditions of leadership and innovation through her
work encouraging MBAs to become more involved in the area
of nonprofit management. Before coming to Wharton, Stephens
worked for a private-sector medical supply company. It was
through that experience that she began to understand the needs
of the rapidly aging population, and how nonprofits will play an
ever-increasing role in addressing these challenges.
During her first year at Wharton, she became active in Net
Impact, a network of emerging business leaders dedicated to
using the power of business to create a better world. Since then,
Stephens has worked with her classmates and faculty to promote greater discussion of nonprofit management issues in the
curriculum. Now the Net Impact group is working with dozens of
other student leaders and clubs to establish the Social Impact
Management Initiative (SIM), which seeks to improve the ethical
leadership, social impact, and strategic partnerships of nonprofit and for-profit organizations alike.
SIM involves research, curricular initiatives, volunteer opportunities, and partnerships across Penn and the local community.
On October 3, 2002, SIM was officially launched with a symposium that included keynote speakers Stephanie Bell-Rose,
president, Goldman Sachs Foundation; Wayne Silby, founder
of Calvert Social Investment Fund; and Ira Jackson, director of
Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Business & Government
and current president of the Arthur M. Black Foundation. An
alumni panel included Eric Adler, WG'96, founder and executive
director of the SEED Foundation; Vanessa Lowe, WG'98, a
financial and programs analyst for the CDFI Fund, an arm of the
US Treasury that invests capital in financial institutions operating in, or for the benefit of, underserved communities; and
Wendi Teleki, WG'98, a program officer for the International
Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector lending arm of the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
SIM's director of alumni relations, Bernadette Ryan, WG'04,
notes that the initiative aims to influence both the student
population as well as the alumni network. "SIM offers the
opportunity to have a long-lasting impact on the MBA culture
and, by extension, the alumni network by incorporating social
objectives into the curriculum," she says. "Ultimately, we'll be
alumni, too."
SIM participant David Levin, C'03, W'03, WG'04, agrees.
"Students who help develop the SIM initiative during its early
stages will make a powerful contribution to society through
the conduit of business education," he says. "These efforts
epitomize the entrepreneurship, creativity, and impact of social
innovation."
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