UCLA Anderson’s 2018 commencement ceremony, like others before it, celebrated the degrees and accomplishments of the newest graduates of its three MBA programs, along with a scattering of brand new Ph.D.s.
But unlike any such event at Anderson in more than a dozen years, Friday’s celebration also marked the end of an era. On July 1, Dean Judy Olian will become president of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, making this year’s graduation the last time she will confer Anderson degrees and preside over its commencement.
“These last 12-plus years at UCLA have been the best years of my life” Olian told the crowd of several thousand, including some 800 graduating students, gathered before her on sun-swept Wilson Plaza. “What a privilege and joy it’s been.”
Before delivering personal remarks, Olian introduced the afternoon’s keynote speaker, William S. (Bill) Anderson (J.D. ’88), son of the school’s namesake,Topa Equities founder John E. Anderson (’40). The late John Anderson and his wife Marion, who passed away in 2017, are the institution’s most generous benefactors, together with Bill Anderson and his siblings.
In his address, Anderson spoke movingly about the concept of change and his admiration for those in the business world who find the courage to take a risk. Anderson then told of his own long-debated decision to leave the family business where he had worked alongside his father, to strike out on his own.
“So, there I was for almost a year, thinking about leaving a very safe family business position,” Anderson said, noting that such a leap might feel less intimidating for many younger people in his audience. “You change jobs more frequently and you do a better job of seeking out new experiences than many prior generations. You have all had the courage to pause and step out of your work lives to attend business school. But, my guess is that some of you still fear change as much as the rest of us.”
Anderson referenced his experience in the beverage industry, saying a few risk-taking craft beer brewers had challenged and changed an industry once dominated by a handful of established major brewers.
“To lead change, you’ll need to step out of your cozy worlds and model the change you want to be known for in your life,” Anderson said. “That will take grit and courage. You won’t be able to ask others to grab and embrace change before you do.”
Returning to the podium after the keynote, Olian characterized her long, successful tenure as Anderson’s dean as “a lot of learning.” She shared with the graduates five lessons she said she would carry with her.
“I’ve learned that you can continue to learn forever,” Olian said. “I’ve realized how much I have yet to learn, and how much better I am when I open myself up to others. I wish the same for you — always to be curious, to seek out the unfamiliar and to keep learning.”
Her second lesson spoke to the capriciousness of fate and fortune. “It is a matter of luck that certain gifts are handed only to some,” she said. “There’s nothing that’s ‘deserved’ about being lucky, or unlucky, (and) it’s our duty — those of us who were born lucky — to give opportunity to others, to those who are less lucky.”
Next, she referenced the Anderson quality of sharing success. “I’ve learned that if you’re surrounded by a great team, a lot can happen,” she said, “way more than you could ever achieve by yourself.
“Fourth, I have learned that if you’re immersed in a cause and in a community that inspires you, work isn’t work, it’s a calling,” she said. “It’s a reason to feel fulfilled, because you’re totally energized by and proud of the purpose of your work.”
For her final lesson, Olian urged the graduates to be themselves: “What I’ve learned is that the best advice I can give you is to be … your authentic selves, not a copy of someone else.”
Tim Bednar (’18), the speaker chosen by the Fully-Employed MBA class, focused in his remarks on what he described as the exceptional nature of his classmates. He spoke of losing his mother to cancer during his first year in the program. When he returned to campus, he found that his classmates had made a donation to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and that a classmate’s company, with which Bednar had no affiliation, had made a matching donation.
“The people here went above and beyond what was typical. People I had come to know for less than a year reached out to me even more than friends I had known my whole life,” Bednar said. “They displayed the power of networking not just for networking’s sake, but for doing what they could to make things a little easier for one of their peers at Anderson.”
Amy Heyde (’18) spoke on behalf of the Executive MBA class.
Heyde likened her shared EMBA experience to a village, with the familial bonds that connotes. She thanked all who built the Anderson village (the school’s faculty, staff and administrators) and those who made it possible (the spouses, children, friends and co-workers who enable EMBA students to participate more fully in campus life).
“On to why you should be proud of our village,” Heyde continued. “(Because) there isn’t the sense of fierce competition to be the best like there often is at work, and most of the time there is a mutual interest in listening and learning … But mostly why I’m proud of our village -- in the right moment, there is humility and vulnerability that allows us to seek help” from others in the group.
Speaking for the full-time program, Sam Blake (’18) contemplated the question facing every graduate: Now what?
“If there’s anything I’ve learned over these past couple of years,” he said, “it’s that the best questions tend to be the simple ones, but with complicated answers. It’s complicated out there. I don’t feel like I’m in a position to tell any of you what to do or what to think. But I can tell you what I believe.
“I believe that we should use data to help us make decisions — but that the hardest decisions are the ones where the data won’t tell you what to do, where you have to decide what to do based on what you believe. It’s during those times that we have to ask those simple-complicated questions.
“And it takes leadership to do that.”
Great Anderson always produce the best business entrepreneurs and for sure this batch also reaches heights
Posted by: Raviteja | 07/03/2018 at 11:38 PM