Last modified: Wednesday, March 12, 2008
$2 million gift by Fred Steingraber to advance IU’s Kelley School of Business’ global presence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As the chairman and chief executive officer of A.T. Kearney, Fred G. Steingraber led an ambitious global expansion into nearly 40 countries, growing the firm at a compounded rate of growth of 25 percent per year for 18 straight years.
When Steingraber retired, A.T. Kearney was the second largest, high value-added strategic and operational consulting firm in the world with the highest growth rate and highest revenue per consultant.
Steingraber, a 1960 Indiana University graduate who was associated with A.T. Kearney for nearly 40 years -- including 18 years as its CEO -- now is looking to help IU's Kelley School of Business to fulfill its ambition and to leverage its established international connections and technological resources with a targeted $2 million gift.
Steingraber's gift, being announced today (March 18), will provide $1.5 million in funding for the Kelley School's new Global Leaders Network (GLN). The GLN will consist of a worldwide network of business leaders and experts who will provide timely insight and unique commentary on a wide range of global business issues.
The GLN, initially implemented through the Kelley School's online MBA program, Kelley Direct, will provide learning resources for students in all Kelley School programs. Ultimately, the GLN will provide a global expert knowledge network that will serve alumni, students, faculty, business leaders, corporations and other IU programs.
The second part of the gift will dedicate $500,000 to provide resources for students aspiring to a career in management consulting by supporting Kelley's burgeoning consulting academy, institute and workshop.
"Fred Steingraber is recognized as a visionary when it comes to doing business in the global marketplace and has a long history of helping the Kelley School develop innovative programs," said Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School. "What makes this gift particularly special is that Fred is engaged highly in a hands-on way with the implementation of the Global Leaders Network.
"Our students will benefit greatly from his wisdom and the creation of this global network of business leaders. This is a gift that will reinforce significantly the reputation of the Kelley School as one of the most innovative business schools in the world," Smith added.
For nearly a decade, Kelley Direct has given successful professionals and corporations an opportunity to earn a Master of Business Administration or a Master of Science degree from the Kelley School, regardless of their location and without having to give up their employment.
The Global Leaders Network will offer students and alumni more video resources online, including simulations, podcasts, real-time interactive discussions held globally, and team-based projects performed in distributed, virtual environments, on a wide range of current and emerging business issues.
For example, students already are able to benefit from a recent visit to the school by China's ambassador to the United States. The school recorded a faculty interview with and presentation by Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong and will make them available to students and faculty online.
A public example of such a podcast is a recent interview with Mattel Inc. CEO Bob Eckert, now available online at https://info.kelley.iu.edu/asset/page/normal/4376.html.
Contributors of this knowledge will include business executives and faculty at other business schools worldwide, as well as other Kelley alumni. Even current students located in other, emerging markets will supply knowledge and share experiences.
"Unlike face-to-face programs, access to the Global Leaders Network's contributors will not be limited to the normal constraints of time and space," said Kelley Direct Chair Richard J. Magjuka. "Instead, business executives who are part of the GLN can have discussions and contribute content to the network at anytime from anywhere.
"This lack of a location constraint makes the GLN unique compared to any face-to-face program in the world and only enhances the flexibility already inherent in the Kelley Direct program," said Magjuka, adding that its offerings also will benefit students in the school's traditional MBA, executive education and undergraduate programs.
Smith added, "This will allow our students to receive input about current, real-world business situations from anywhere in the world by the people who are living them everyday."
Magjuka helped launch Kelley Direct in 1999 with a class of 14 students. Today, the program serves 1,250 students who are enrolled in three master of science degree programs. It operates corporate-sponsored MBA programs with leading corporations including General Motors, Ingersoll Rand, Cummins, United Technologies and John Deere.
This spring, Kelley Direct will launch a corporate-sponsored China MBA Consortium with China International Marine Containers Corp. and Anshan Steel, two of the largest companies in China. Magjuka currently is traveling throughout Asia, where he is establishing relationships with leading business executives, educational institutions and their faculty in order to participate in the Global Leaders Network.
An explanation of GLN and its instructional model is available online at https://kd.iu.edu/gln/default.html.
In response to the gift, the school will create the Fred G. Steingraber Chair of Distributed Business Education. Magjuka will be its first recipient.
As reported above, the remaining $500,000 portion of Steingraber's gift will go towards supporting Kelley's development of both MBA and undergraduate students who want to follow him into consulting.
For the last five years, Paul N. Friga, a clinical associate professor of strategy previously with McKinsey & Company and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, has directed the school's Kelley Consulting Academy for MBAs. Last year, the school added the Kelley Consulting Workshop for undergraduates. Each prepares students for careers in consulting through curriculum-based experiences, enabling them to make connections with leading firms and placement in internship and fulltime employment positions.
The Consulting Academy is the school's largest MBA academy with 80 members. The new Consulting Workshop, with 60 members, is achieving similar success in placing undergraduates into the world's top consulting firms such as Deloitte, Bain, BCG, Ernst & Young, Huron, McKinsey, and PricewaterhouseCoopers in only two years of existence. Kelley is the only business school to have made a commitment to a consulting academy, to which it offers experienced consulting faculty and staff who provide supplemental, academic, curriculum-based training and experience designed to prepare students for a consulting position.
"There has been a very keen awareness among the top 20 business schools in the country about the important opportunities that those schools have in serving the consulting industry," Steingraber said. "Kelley, I think, is further ahead right now with regard to this whole initiative, in terms of the kind of training, education, formal classroom instruction and interaction...It's a real-time, hands-on experience that they're getting here from real-world consultants that I think prepares them for successful careers in consulting.
"Both of these initiatives and commitments are unique and extremely relevant in terms of learning and in terms of creating career opportunities, either fostering enhanced career development through the Kelley Direct program for people that are currently employed in positions of significant responsibility, or in the case of the Consulting Academy and Institute, really focusing on ways to increase the specific training and development of these students while they are here, preparing them for a service career in management consulting," Steingraber said.
Steingraber also is chairman emeritus of A.T. Kearney and chairman of Board Advisors L.L.C. Board Advisors undertakes directorship appointments and provides personal consulting to boards and top management of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations on strategic issues. Steingraber has served and is serving on numerous public, private, not-for-profit and advisory boards in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and India.
He is a member and past chairman of the Kelley School Dean's Council and is a member of the IU Foundation Board of Directors. He was awarded the Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2000 and was inducted into the Kelley School's Academy of Alumni Fellows in 1986. Steingraber also received a MBA from the University of Chicago in 1964, graduating with academic honors and was admitted to Beta Gamma Sigma. He received the 1996 University of Chicago Distinguished Corporate Executive Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Chicago where he is a life member of the Council of the Graduate School of Business.
