BGI Announces New President

Barring anything strange happening with my studies over the next six months, I will have the same signature on my undergrad and graduate diplomas from two very different schools separated by 15 years. Amazing. Here's to Dr. Strauss leading us down the path of continued organic growth, regenerative economic thought leadership, and community building (image from city-data.com).

Dr. Jon Strauss Appointed President of Bainbridge Graduate Institute

Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) in Washington, which offers a unique MBA in Sustainable Business program, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jon C. Strauss as President of the Institute.

Dr. Strauss comes to the Bainbridge Graduate Institute out of retirement as President Emeritus of Harvey Mudd College, a highly ranked liberal arts college of engineering, science and mathematics, where he served as its fourth president from 1997 to 2006. Dr Strauss brings an extensive background in academic leadership and management and he is an advocate of the benefits of a diverse and inclusive collegiate culture.

“As President of this unique school, I am excited to collaborate with the BGI community to move its mission forward so that we will continue to grow in numbers, diversity, and in the impact that our student leaders will have in the world,” said President Strauss. “The need to create businesses, non-profits, and governmental agencies that are socially responsible and environmentally sustainable and that support the health and long-term needs of our global communities and our planet becomes more evident each day. BGI is in the forefront of educating leaders in sustainable business to do just that. And I am here to accelerate the process. As BGI moves through the accreditation process, I am confident that my experience in accreditation with institutions of higher learning will be of benefit.”

Dr. Strauss’ professional interests include organizational development and planning, modeling and performance enhancement, and sustainability and decentralized management in higher education. He was appointed to the National Science Board In 2004 where he has led two important task forces on international science and sustainable energy and chairs the Subcommittee on Polar Issues.

“BGI is honored to welcome Jon Strauss as its new President,” said Chairman of the Board John Eisenhauer. “This marks a major step in BGI’s emergence as a world-class and world-renowned school and in its mission of changing business for good. Jon’s experience and past successes, and his enthusiasm for BGI’s focus and potential, make him a fitting successor for our beloved founder, Gifford Pinchot."

BGI co-founder and President Emeritus Gifford Pinchot will work with President Strauss with a focus on teaching, speaking, and writing about sustainable business. According to Pinchot, “Jon Strauss is the perfect President for BGI for our next level of evolution and growth. He has a deep commitment to sustainability and his experience and credentials are outstanding. I am thrilled to be liberated to work on my new book and to research and explore new opportunities in sustainable business.”

Prior to his appointment at Harvey Mudd College, Dr Strauss served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He is also President Emeritus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, and he served as Senior Vice President of Administration at the University of Southern California where he also was a tenured professor of electrical engineering. He was Vice President for Budget and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and also served as a professor of computer science at that institution and at Washington University in St. Louis, the Technical University of Norway, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Dr. Strauss has published and spoken widely, consulted for a wide variety of colleges, universities, and corporations, and served on the Boards of a number of corporations and professional and community organizations. He holds a Ph.D. in Systems and Communication Sciences from Carnegie Institute of Technology, a M.S. in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh, and a B.S.E.E. from the University of Wisconsin.

BGI is ranked #1 in several categories in Net Impact’s “Business as Unusual 2008” - A Student Guide to Graduate Business Programs and was selected by BusinessWeek last year as one of the top design and innovation schools in the world. BGI’s enrollment has grown along with its reputation. In line with the continued growth and increased enrollment, Bainbridge Graduate Institute recently hired Dr. Chris Gilbert as Provost and Executive Vice President and Dr. Scott Schroeder as Dean of Faculty and Instruction and expanded its monthly residential program to two weekends a month.

NetImpact + Join the Impact

Movements are born, and built. Last night found me at a group dinner at the White Dog Café, Judy Wicks’ model of social entrepreneurship and sustainable dining, talking with students from Darden and Wharton about fair trade chocolate and the outdoor industry. Then I was invited upstairs to Judy’s house, where I talked to Mike Hannigan of Give Something Back Office Products, Mark Albion, founder of Net Impact, and Judy Wicks, one of the original members of the Sustainable Business Network (SBN). SBN is where the dream of a place like BGI was born, and these leaders are the architects of the movement we’re all part of.

But there’s been another important movement weaving through this weekend. Last week a small group of people decided there needed be some sort of organized, widespread public outcry to California’s passing of Proposition 8 banning gay marriage. Join the Impact started last Friday, and today there will be simultaneous protests in every state of the union, and in many cities abroad. I’ll be missing a session this afternoon in order to be present at the Philadelphia rally.

So what does this have to do with sustainability? Everything. Grassroots movements become mainstream when they are inclusive, integrated coalitions, united for a common purpose. Sustainable business will have traction when I look around a room at one of these conferences and see proportional representation of aspiring business leaders from minority communities. Strong leaders are authentic leaders, and there are too many closeted glbt people in the business world for their leadership to be truly powerful. Sustainability is about the planet and profit, but more importantly, it’s about people. All people. Bringing their whole selves into this movement. Because this is a movement about ideas, and ideas come from uncommon partnerships and unconventional thinking.

Because Prop 8 isn’t about marriage, it’s about legislating discrimination, allowing a simple majority to deny rights to a minority. And Net Impact isn’t about business, it’s about going beyond business to change the world for the better. And we can only do that once we’ve invited everyone to the table.

Check out my friend Gerod’s work linking sustainability and the glbt community.

This morning's keynote about the partnership between Coca-Cola's bottling and distribution enterprise and the World Wildlife Federation was interesting in terms of the some of the issues brought up: water usage (coke measures theirs as 1.77 liters of water to make 1 liter of coke), distribution, packaging, Wal-Mart (a major customer who's pushing this agenda), and sustainable animal habitat.

Carter Roberts from the WWF mentioned that their panda logo is one of the 10 most recognizable brands in the world. To which I thought, yeah, because you've licensed the crap out of it. And I'm still not clear on what their successes have been (and how partnering with Coke is useful). They did talk about watershed restoration, but as someone who's worked in social services, I've come to prefer prevention to band-aids...

Marc Gunther moderated, and made a great segue: the elephant in the room was the bottles of Dasani on the table. The answer was basically that at least they weren't from Fiji. As Wayne pointed out, "less bad" is the mantra.

I will say this, hearing mainstream CEOs talk about measuring their entire value chain for their carbon footprint and admitting the externalities involved in producing corn syrup, was refreshing.

Now for my favorite: methane capture! And since one of the panelists is from Mars, there's candy.