Roy Gilbert started understanding how important alumni gifts are to the school even before he received his MBA degree in 2002. As co-chairman of his class gift committee, Gilbert got a clear picture of how much Stanford GSB depends on its graduates whose donations create opportunities for succeeding generations of students.
“My experiences at the GSB changed my life, and I want to be able to do the same for others.” — Roy Gilbert, MBA ’02
“Raising money for Stanford GSB opened my eyes to the financial model for the school,” says Gilbert, director of online sales and operations for Google India. “I know there were folks in my class who thought that since they weren’t receiving fellowships, their education wasn’t being subsidized. Everyone who attends Stanford GSB does so with the help and generosity of previous classes, through annual giving and the endowment,” he says.
Annual gifts from alumni let Stanford GSB remain innovative, such as pouring resources into launching a completely redesigned MBA curriculum in Fall 2007 – just 16 months after the faculty approved the concept. The curriculum features a more personalized, globally-integrated approach to management education that emphasizes leadership development. It also requires that students spend some time working or studying in an unfamiliar part of the world—an innovation that has been made possible in large part through annual gifts from previous generations.
As a dedicated volunteer, Gilbert has served as co-chair of his fifth reunion committee and, since 2004, as a member of the Business School Fund Council.
In addition to his commitment to ongoing annual giving, Gilbert, a former lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, and his wife Leigh Anne, have endowed the Roy and Leigh Anne Gilbert Fellowship Fund at Stanford GSB, which has a preference for supporting students who are former military junior officers. Says Gilbert, “My experiences at Stanford GSB changed my life, and I want to be able to do the same for others.”
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