As the newly elected President, I am delighted to invite you to join the Harvard Business School Club of Arizona for the 2011-2012 season. Last year was a busy year for the Club as we hosted both Arizona Business Forum luncheons and member only field trips. Highlights included Christine Aguilera,CEO of SkyMall, Eugene Seroka of Neptune Orient Lines (a publicly traded container shipping firm newly relocated to Arizona), Peter Woog of the Najafi Companies and recent grad Jay Rogers (’06) and his unique and growing Local Motors custom-built car company. We also enjoyed behind the scenes tours of Turf Paradise and Taser International as well as presentations from Jim Rounds of Elliott D. Pollack & Company and James Paulson, Strategist for Wells Capital Management. In response to requests from Club members, we published an Arizona HBS Alumni directory and also designed Club name badges for President Club members.

This year we are excited to welcome new members to our Board of Directors:  David Bornemann (’67) and Ryan Desmond (’03) who joined us in September. We also recently created an Advisory Board currently comprised of Mark Quale (’75) and Dick Stern (’62) who have served the Club for many years. We thank them for their dedicated service and look forward to continuing to benefit from their leadership. I would also like to thank Victoria Hayes, our Past President for all of her efforts and leadership during her term in office.

Our season kicked off on September 22, 2011 at the Phoenix Country Club with Rick Hamada, the newly appointed CEO of Avnet, an industrial distributor of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology, with revenues of over $ 26 billion. Both the speaker and the turnout were exceptional and a special thank you to Claudia Dulude (’82) for organizing the event.  Although still evolving, we have an exceptionally exciting year planned and have already confirmed a diverse roster of speakers and field trips including tours of both the Ping Golf Club factory and The Phoenix Children’s Hospital. We will also host American Traffic Solutions, returning Wells Capital Strategist, Jim Paulsen and a panel discussion comprised of local entrepreneurs. This year we are excited to host Senior HBS Professor Robert S. Kaplan (’83) for an evening discussion and presentation on finance, economics and leadership on October 13. In addition, the Club will hold several networking events, such as the Young Alumni Group and create a Mentoring Program.

Finally, the Club will continue its proud tradition of awarding an annual fellowship to an executive of an Arizona nonprofit organization to attend the week-long “Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management” executive education program at HBS in Boston. This year over 20 candidates applied and Mary Ann Guerra, CEO of BioAccel was awarded the fellowship. Please note that donations towards this program may be made at any time (or via the Club membership form).

Although we have been in existence since 1973 and have over 625 alumni living and or working in Arizona, we always strive to offer more activities and serve our evolving membership base. We have listened to your suggestions and have created many venues to meet and interact with each other. I invite you to join the Club as a first time member and/or renew your membership by completing the application form on line TODAY.

Membership in the Club offers the following unique benefits:
• Free online subscription to the Harvard Business Review
• Meeting with local alumni, executives and members of other professional organizations
• Exclusive events such as “behind-the-scenes” tours and networking socials
• Virtual Learning Series – live, monthly conference calls featuring HBS professors
• E-mail notification of HBS and non-HBS events
• Online event registration, membership enrollment and access to HBS resources
• Printed Arizona HBS Alumni Directory – listings of over 625 Arizona based alumni

This years’ President’s Council membership will include paid luncheons, field trips and dues as well as a permanent HBS Club name badge and an Arizona Alumni directory. Given our full schedule of events this season, this level of membership, at $200, represents a very compelling value…. and a savings of over $100! We hope you will consider this level of support for our Club.

Please join us for another exciting year of learning, networking, and exposure to local alumni and businesses. I encourage you to send in your membership form today! If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions please contact me at 480-222-8737 or Christopher.hunter@specialdevices.com . I look forward to an exciting year ahead and hope to see you soon at a future Club event.

Regards,

Christopher Hunter AMP166
President

P.S. We are also looking to expand our leadership Board with new members and we always have room for new ideas, venues and programming. Both on-going projects and/or one-time event ideas will be welcomed.