Greg Stone ’84 (JRN ’80) likes to quote the Irish writer Oscar Wilde when he explains why he takes part in the Alumni Club of Boston’s successful new mentorship program. “Wilde said, ‘Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes.’ I have a great deal of both experience and mistakes because of my many years in business,” says Stone. “If I can impart some of the knowledge I’ve gained the hard way, that will make the business world better.”
Stone, who owns a strategic communications consulting firm, is one of more than 20 alumni taking part in the Alumni Club of Boston’s mentorship program. Now in its second year, the program matches recent alumni with more experienced ones, who offer guidance and advice as the new graduates navigate the first career-building years after business school.
The Alumni Club of Boston is the only Columbia Business School alumni club with a formal mentorship program. Alumni apply and are paired by the program organizers, Atul Varma ’03 and Bryan Lassiter ’11, both board members. The pairs meet at a kick-off event hosted by Varma at the offices of BNY Mellon, where he is managing director of business strategy.
“If I can impart some of the knowledge I’ve gained the hard way, that will make the business world better.”—Greg Stone
Though there are no explicit rules governing when or how often pairs meet, they are urged to connect regularly and be clear about expectations; a mentee, for instance, should not expect to be hired by a mentor and vice versa. Pairs are cautioned not to expect or aim for a business relationship. But if one does emerge from the team, so much the better. Such was the case with one pairing last year.
Barri Blauvelt ’76, founder, CEO, and president of Innovara, a global healthcare business strategy and management development company, had been receiving e-mails from the School’s Boston alumni club for years, inviting her to lectures and networking events. But living in Amherst, Mass., a two-hour drive west of Boston, she never became involved. That is, until she read an e-mail asking for experienced alumni to mentor more recent alumni. “I’ve always had a strong philosophy of mentorship,” she explains.
Deepak Mittal ’10 received the same e-mail. The founder and CEO of xtLytics, a deep-data analytics firm for healthcare and insurance companies, signed up to be mentored, with the goal of learning how to get more connected in the healthcare field.
When the two were matched, they discovered that they have complementary skill sets. “I learned a lot about focused analytics and came to appreciate the power of what it could potentially do to help my clients,” says Blauvelt. “Meantime, there were things that I could help Deepak with — how to put his story forward, especially to executives, to help them visualize how using analytics can help companies reach their goals.”
As part of the mentorship, Blauvelt also took Mittal to client visits to hear from executives about the biggest challenges they face in assessing and developing their managers’ skill sets. “It was great that Deepak could join me and see executives’ reactions firsthand,” she says.
Mittal agrees. “Barri brought the knowledge and experience of working with pharmaceutical companies, especially around marketing to those companies,” he says, adding, “and, she is an overall nice person to work with.”
The two have since partnered on a consulting project for a hospital in New Jersey and look forward to other projects in the works, especially now that their formal mentorship period is over.
Though the program typically sees older alumni mentoring younger ones, participants say the learning goes both ways, with mentors asserting that they gain as much information — and sometimes wisdom — as they impart.
“You learn a tremendous amount,” says Stone. “You have the satisfaction of helping a younger person, and it also forces you to challenge your own assumptions about the world and the world of business.”
Adds Blauvelt: “I learned as much from Deepak as I hope he learned from me.”
The mentorship program was originated by club board member Lassiter, an investment analyst at LMCG Investments, during the 2015 Alumni Club Leadership Summit — which happened to coincide with the School’s 100th-anniversary celebration. “The Centennial was approaching, and we were talking about how we could give back to the Business School community and at the same time encourage alumni engagement,” Lassiter says.
Though the program typically sees older alumni mentoring younger ones, participants say the learning goes both ways, with mentors asserting that they gain as much information — and sometimes wisdom — as they impart.
He shared the idea with Varma, who takes part in BNY Mellon’s mentorship program and knows what makes mentorship programs successful. Among them is oversight; the club assigns a board member to keep in contact with each mentor/mentee pair. “It really worked because mentors and mentees didn’t feel like they were left out in the cold by themselves. If they needed advice, we were there to help them with meeting routines, goal setting, and making the most of the program,” says Varma. “The program was so successful that one of the mentees returned this year ... to get advice on addressing a different challenge,” he adds. At the end of the year, the program held a graduation, which Dean Glenn Hubbard attended and praised.
“The Alumni Club of Boston has created a terrific program that enriches the careers of all who participate,” Hubbard says. “Having a mentor can help pave the way for success, and serving as a mentor is a great way to pay it forward and make our graduates even stronger members of the business community.”
Columbia Business School’s alumni relations team hopes the Boston mentorship program will inspire other alumni clubs to follow suit. “The Boston alumni club took it upon itself to start this program. It was highly organized and was a terrific success,” says Beth Brown, director of alumni relations. “The mentors and mentees all gained a tremendous amount from it. This is the kind of engagement with the CBS community that we like to see, one in which alumni build and strengthen connections with one another and the School.”
The mentorship program is one of the many initiatives run by Columbia Business School graduates based in Boston, which is home to more than 1,100 alumni. As club presidents, Ben Grossman ’06 and Swagata Chakrabarti ’08 helm one of the country’s most active alumni clubs, planning a range of events each year, from lectures to cocktail hours.
“There are a lot of new social clubs emerging in the Boston area, but Columbia Business School’s Boston alumni club holds a special place in all of our hearts, based on the wonderful experiences we had at the School. We have an instant connection with folks who have gone through the same experience and learned from the same great professors,” says Chakrabarti, president of TeenLife Media. She notes that the mentorship program drew alumni, like Blauvelt, who especially wanted to volunteer as mentors. “You get different people who are attracted to different things, and it was gratifying to see that there were people who saw this program and said, ‘Wow, this is a great way for me to give back.’”
Grossman, co-president of the Grossman Marketing Group, agrees. “The program has enabled some of the more seasoned alumni to give back, and it’s also created a more welcoming alumni environment here in Boston for some of the younger alumni.”