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Graduate Management Admission Council Announces New Board Members

RESTON, Va., July 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a global association of leading graduate business schools, today announced the addition of six new members to its board of directors: (elected by member schools) Isabelle Bajeux–Besnainou, Dean and Professor of Finance, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University; W. Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean for Admissions, Yale School of Management, Yale University; Catherine Duggan, Director (Dean), Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town; Anthony Wilbon, Dean, School of Business, Howard University; (appointed by the Board to fill vacancies) Mukesh Butani, Founder and Managing Partner, BMR Legal Advocates; and Itziar de Ros, Director of Corporate Marketing & Communications, IESE Business School, University of Navarra. They started their terms on July 1.

"We are thrilled and grateful for the six outstanding individuals from four continents joining the board of GMAC, bringing with them diverse and inspiring perspectives on graduate management education," said Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO of GMAC. "As the industry continues to evolve and adapt in the face of the ever–changing landscape, their onboarding signals GMAC's strong commitment to its global mission of connecting business schools and candidates in support of growing graduate business education."

New GMAC Board Members

Isabelle Bajeux–Besnainou, Dean and Professor of Finance, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Isabelle Bajeux–Besnainou is the 10th Dean of the Tepper School of Business and the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Finance. Since her arrival in 2020, Bajeux reorganized the leadership structure and started new degree programs that offer Tepper students new options and enhanced flexibility. As well, she launched the first comprehensive Tepper School DE&I Strategic Plan to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Tepper School is known for being the birthplace of management science, as well as for its frequent cross–collaboration with the other renowned schools at Carnegie Mellon. In that spirit, Bajeux refreshed its brand positioning to be the school of "The Intelligent Future," where students learn to combine the power of data with human judgement and imagination to make better decisions. Before her tenure at Tepper, Bajeux was Dean of McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management in Montreal, Quebec where she spearheaded the school of retail management and several new master's degree programs.

Mukesh Butani, Founder and Managing Partner, BMR Legal Advocates

Mukesh Butani is the Founder and Managing Partner of BMR Legal Advocates, a Tier 1 law firm. He was also Co–founder and Chairman of BMR Advisors, one of India's leading professional services firms in the areas of Tax, Risk, and M&A. With specialization in corporate international tax and transfer pricing, he has experience in advising multinational corporations and Indian conglomerates on a range of matters concerning business re–organization, cross–border structuring, and tax controversy. Mukesh served as Vice–Chair of the ICC Paris Tax Commission and as a member of the Permanent Scientific Committee of the International Fiscal Association and OECD BIAC. A Fellow Chartered Accountant, he holds a double bachelor's in accounting, as well as Financial Management and Law. He serves as an Independent Board Member in select leading multinationals and Indian conglomerates and is a visiting faculty at the University of Vienna and the University of Lausanne.

Itziar de Ros, Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications, IESE Business School, University of Navarra

Itziar de Ros is the Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications at IESE Business School in Barcelona. In this role, de Ros is responsible for IESE's marketing and communications strategy across all its campuses. She joined IESE in 2007 after working in marketing at DuPont, based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2011, de Ros was made Director of MBA Admissions at IESE, a post she held for six years, managing a team of 20 people from 12 different countries. Since 2021, de Ros has been on the Board of Ravents Codorniu, one of the most prestigious wine and sparkling wine companies in Europe. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of Navozyme, a blockchain–based solutions company based in Singapore. She holds an MBA from IESE, as well as a master's degree in Digital Transformation and a BA in Business Administration from the University of Navarra.

W. Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean for Admissions, Yale School of Management, Yale University

Bruce DelMonico is Assistant Dean for Admissions at the Yale School of Management. He joined Yale SOM in 2004 and has led the Admissions Office since 2006. During his time at Yale, Bruce has helped innovate new technologies and novel methods of candidate evaluation, including early roles in the Slate CRM system, the use of asynchronous video questions, and the adoption of forced–choice non–cognitive assessments. He has sat on a number of industry–related boards and is a past Trustee of the Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut. Before joining Yale, Bruce was an attorney focused on First Amendment, white collar, and commercial litigation, working primarily on cases with exposure ranging from $10 million to $10 billion. Bruce holds a bachelor's degree in Honors English from Brown University, a master's degree in Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Catherine Duggan, Director (Dean), Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town

Catherine Duggan is Director (Dean) of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB). Her research examines the political economy of development in Africa, where she has done work in two dozen countries over more than twenty years. Prior to joining the UCT GSB, she was Vice Dean at the African Leadership University School of Business "" a new business school in Rwanda "" and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford's Sad Business School. She served on the Harvard Business School faculty for nearly a decade and won several teaching awards, becoming the first woman in the school's history to win the Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Required Curriculum two years in a row. She earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.A. with honors from Brown University, both in Political Science.

Anthony Wilbon, Dean, School of Business, Howard University

Dr. Anthony Wilbon is the Dean of the Howard University School of Business. Dr. Wilbon's particular areas of research include technology strategy, technology innovation and entrepreneurship, operations management, project management, systems development life cycle, and research methodology. Prior to joining Howard University, Dr. Wilbon was a faculty member at Morgan State University's Earl Graves School of Business and Management. He also previously served in engineering and management level positions and several organizations including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Booz–Allen and Hamilton, Inc., American Management Systems, Inc, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. A respected academician, Dr. Wilbon completed his BS in Electrical Engineering at Michigan State University, an MBA at Howard University School of Business, and a Ph.D. at George Washington University in Management of Science, Technology and Innovation. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright International Education Administrators Award (France).

Besides the aforementioned, newly elected board members, Sanjiv Kapur, an independent consultant, was re–appointed for a second term. GMAC also recognizes and thanks its outgoing board members: William (Bill) Boulding, Dean and J.B. Fuqua Professor of Business Administration, Fuqua School of Business of Duke University; Tom Buiocchi, Executive Advisor & Former CEO of Service Channel; Erika James, Dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; Peter Johnson, Assistant Dean, Full–time MBA Programs & Admissions, University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business; Soojin Kwon, Managing Director, Full–Time MBA Admissions and Student Experience, University of Michigan's Ross School of Business; and Donna Rapaccioli, Dean of the Gabelli School of Business and Dean of Business Faculty, Fordham University.

About GMAC

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is a mission–driven association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. Founded in 1953, GMAC provides world–class research, industry conferences, recruiting tools, and assessments for the graduate management education industry, as well as resources, events, and services that help guide candidates through their higher education journey. Owned and administered by GMAC, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam is the most widely used graduate business school assessment.

More than 12 million prospective students a year trust GMAC's websites, including mba.com, to learn about MBA and business master's programs, connect with schools around the world, prepare and register for exams and get advice on successfully applying to MBA and business master's programs. BusinessBecause and The MBA Tour are subsidiaries of GMAC, a global organization with offices in China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

To learn more about our work, please visit www.gmac.com

Media Contact:

Teresa Hsu
Sr. Manager, Media Relations
202–390–4180 (mobile)
thsu@gmac.com


BRAC celebrates 50 years: A case for social development founded and led by the Global South

BRAC celebrates 50 years and has reached over nine million people living in extreme poverty through its Ultra-Poor Graduation program, which introduces a set of sequenced and holistic interventions intended to guarantee sustained financial stability. Credit: BRAC

BRAC celebrates 50 years and has reached over nine million people living in extreme poverty through its Ultra-Poor Graduation program, which introduces a set of sequenced and holistic interventions intended to guarantee sustained financial stability. Credit: BRAC

By Naureen Hossain
New York, Jul 13 2022 – As part of the 2022 United Nations High-Level Political Forum, BRAC, with the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Nations, hosted a side event this week to discuss development opportunities led by the Global South. The event highlighted the NGO’s achievements over the last five decades in alleviating and eradicating poverty and the interconnectedness between the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their initiatives.

As part of the 2022 United Nations High-Level Political Forum, BRAC and the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations hosted a side event this week to discuss development opportunities led by the Global South. The event highlighted the NGO’s achievements over the last five decades in alleviating and eradicating poverty and the interconnectedness between the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their initiatives.

The discussion was moderated by IPS Senior Vice Chair and Executive Director, IPS North America, Farhana Haque Rahman. Speakers included BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh, Ambassador Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh; Robert Kayinamura, Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda Mission to the United Nations; Deputy Chief and Senior Programme Management Officer to the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island States (UN-OHRLLS) Susanna Wolf; Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, and Jaideep Prabhu, Director of the Center for India & Global Business, Cambridge University.

At the high-level discussion commemorating BRAC’s 50 years of eradicating poverty were BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh; Ambassador Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh; Robert Kayiamura, Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda Mission to the United Nations. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

At the high-level discussion commemorating BRAC’s 50 years of eradicating poverty were BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh; Ambassador Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh and Robert Kayinamura, Deputy Permanent Representative of Rwanda Mission to the United Nations. Credit: BRAC

The event was a commemoration of BRAC’s 50th anniversary. Founded in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC began as a humanitarian relief provider after Bangladesh’s war of independence ended in 1971. The NGO has since grown in scale and operations, the only one of its size to originate from the Global South. Its programs reach over 100 million people in 11 South Asia and African countries. It aims to provide the tools and strategies for people to graduate from poverty and into more financially stable, resilient lives. Over the last five decades, BRAC has worked to address the pressing socio-economic issues of the times through holistic, solutions-based approaches that have relied on local community involvement in multiple program planning and implementation avenues.

The success of BRAC and other NGOs has also come down to the close collaboration between them and the Bangladesh government. Bangladesh has been celebrated for its economic growth and development, achieving the highest GDP globally from 2010 to 2020. The World Bank has called it a “model for poverty reduction”. This has been possible, as Ambassador Rabab Fatima stated in her opening remarks, because of the government’s “tremendous commitment to achieving the UN SDGs, especially SDG 1: No Poverty – aligning national plans and policy documents with SDG targets and goals and working in close partnership with the NGO sector and other civil society members, including BRAC”.

The forum’s discussion also deliberated on the multi-faceted approach needed for poverty eradication.

BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh noted that “critical to eradicating poverty is understanding that it is multidimensional.”

“Solutions must address not only income and livelihoods but also education, health, climate, and gender equality – the many interconnected drivers that trap people in the most extreme states of poverty, unable to escape without receiving a significant transfer of assets and tailored support…”

Saleh also remarked that BRAC’s social development and investment approach had been shaped by a “problems-driven approach, rather than a proposal-driven one” and is crucially defined by its founding and establishment in the Global South. The traditional approach to development, as designed and dictated by the Global North, has had the unintended consequence of excluding millions of people from traditional programs and market-led initiatives.

“What we’ve seen is that people in extreme poverty are being left behind in development discussions.”

Deputy Chief and Senior Programme Management Officer to UN-OHRLLS Susanna Wolf; Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Jaideep Prabhu, Director of the Center for India & Global Business, Cambridge University. Credit: BRAC

Deputy Chief and Senior Programme Management Officer to UN-OHRLLS Susanna Wolf; Oriana Bandiera, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Jaideep Prabhu, Director of the Center for India & Global Business, Cambridge University. Credit: BRAC

The high-level forum also covered how BRAC’s work and, in turn, Bangladesh’s growth and success demonstrate the SDGs’ interconnectedness, particularly regarding SDG1. Most notably, SDGs 4, 5, and 17 call for equitable and inclusive quality education for all, gender equality and revitalizing global partnerships for sustainable development.

In working with millions of people living in extreme poverty, the solutions put forward by BRAC have been borne from innovation through frugality for the sake of financial viability and social and environmental impact, as Professor Jaideep Prabhu noted.

“Indeed, Bangladesh has pioneered the idea of social business… but instead of returning these profits to investors and owners, you put this wealth back into scaling your social mission and broadening your social impact.”

Prabhu also noted that this approach to business and social development had been adopted worldwide, including publicly listed companies that take responsibility for their performance’s social and environmental impact.

BRAC reached over nine million people living in extreme poverty through its Ultra-Poor Graduation program, which introduces a set of sequenced and holistic interventions intended to guarantee sustained financial stability.

Among their efforts at poverty eradication, a key factor has been to empower women through education and economic independence.

Oriana Bandiera of the London School of Economics remarked: “It is not possible to achieve SDG1 [No Poverty] without advancing economic opportunities for women and their status in society.”

Studies from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) have shown that investing in women’s economic empowerment can have a meaningful impact on social and economic development. This can be observed in Bangladesh, where it has made significant strides in reducing gender divisions, closing 72 percent of the overall gender gap, and reducing the rates of child marriages, maternal mortality, and family violence.

As was discussed in the forum, this investment in women’s economic empowerment and the long-term impact on poverty eradication can be achieved through community engagement. This has been seen in BRAC’s education programs, first pioneered in 1985. Their model for community-based education programs recruits women, men, and other members of local communities in the most vulnerable areas to provide accessible schooling for boys and girls in one-classroom settings. Today, BRAC has become one of the world’s largest education providers.

Poverty is multidimensional and solutions should not only address income and livelihoods but also education, health, climate, and gender equality, a high-level discussion moderated by IPS Senior Vice Chair and Executive Director, IPS North America, Farhana Haque Rahman heard. Credit: BRAC

Poverty is multidimensional and solutions should not only address income and livelihoods but also education, health, climate, and gender equality, a high-level discussion moderated by IPS Senior Vice Chair and Executive Director, IPS North America, Farhana Haque Rahman heard. Credit: BRAC

BRAC demonstrated the potential for countries in the Global South to proactively lead development initiatives in the region. Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Rwanda to the UN Robert Kayinamura stated that middle-income countries should step up to corroborate and share their knowledge and lived experiences in shaping these initiatives, citing Rwanda’s growth in the development sector.

“We have tried to achieve within our means with the SDGs,” he said. “It has been partnerships, including BRAC, which has brought us to where we are.”

This sentiment and call for partnerships to achieve the SDGs was echoed by Susanna Wolf of UN-OHLLRS, who provided the perspective of international agencies.

“Strong emphasis on building resilience to various shocks from health emergencies to disasters and price shocks, which are all increasingly frequent and disproportionally affect LDCs (Least Developed Countries). To address the multidimensional nature of poverty, all partners are expected to step up their efforts. Social protection has an increasingly important role to play, and other LDCs can learn a lot from the innovative approaches spearheaded by BRAC.”

The systemic inequities that have resulted in and perpetuated extreme poverty have only come in sharper contrast in the wake of compounding global crises such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. The efforts of NGOs like BRAC and the frontline workers that continue to work through these crises to support the most vulnerable communities show their resilience. BRAC has championed people’s resilience, agency, and partnership for fifty years; may it continue for another fifty more.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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