Since 1971, the Distinguished Alumni Awards have honored leaders across industries who strive to make the world better by turning ideas into action. This year’s winners have applied their transformative insights to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world—from Singapore, to New England, to Nigeria. Their successes in industries as diverse as oil, biopharmaceuticals, education, and agriculture exemplify the resounding impact of Chicago Booth.
Chairman, Shell Companies in Singapore
Swee Chen Goh:
My primary role as the chairman of the Shell Companies in Singapore is to protect the reputation of Shell. It is not just the commercial value that is important to us. It's also the value that we add to the community that we serve. We know that the world needs more energy, and we know that there is a climate challenge at the same time. What we want to do is to bring like-minded people together to have that discussion on bright ideas and on solutions.
Swee Chen Goh:
I joined Chicago Booth mid-career. I did a lot of research on the business schools that are available here in Singapore and clearly Chicago Booth came out as top. It offers not just one of the best reputations in terms of the business school, but also top-notch faculty where we can learn and be inspired by some of the top brains around the world.
Swee Chen Goh:
I was just simply awed by the kind of knowledge that we could gain from the faculty and from the cohort around us. And it's the same faculty that teach in Chicago, in London, and in Singapore. Whether it's an Executive MBA or it's the Full-Time program. We get that same quality of education and the same rigor.
Swee Chen Goh:
The Booth alumni, there is a huge network that stretches to all parts of the world. It literally is a global village. Really the benefit and the advantage of a school like Chicago Booth is where you need that expertise, where you need someone to challenge you with your thinking, whether it's future or current matter, you know there's always someone to have a dialogue with.
Swee Chen Goh:
I was totally surprised that I've been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award. I am really proud of the fact that the recognition is to me, being here in Asia, and it really puts Asia, it puts Singapore on the platform as well, especially at the Chicago Booth platform where there are so many distinguished past honorees. So it is a humbling experience.
Swee Chen Goh, ’03 (AXP-2), is the chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore—the first woman to earn a role that high in the company. Goh wants Shell to continue to play a prominent role in Singapore’s future and contribute as an active member of the Singaporean community.
In 2003, Goh joined Shell as chief information officer, oil product, East. Just a year into her tenure, she was promoted to vice president of global IT services, a move that made her the first Asian woman to hold such a senior role. She took on a P&L role in 2011, running Shell’s lubricants and commercial fuels business for Asia Pacific/Middle East. Goh, with her family, relocated to Beijing before returning to Singapore, where in October 2014, she assumed the role of chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore, which currently has 3,200 employees.
“I am really proud that the recognition is given to me, being here in Asia,” Goh said of the Distinguished Alumni Award. “It puts Asia and Singapore on the Chicago Booth platform as well, where there are so many distinguished past honorees. It is a humbling experience.”
“The Booth alumni network stretches to all parts of the world—it literally is a global village. When you need that expertise, when you need someone to challenge your thinking, there’s someone to have a dialogue with.”
Cofounder, Chief Executive Officer and Director, TESARO Inc.
Lonnie Moulder:
Prior to Booth, I started my career as a clinical pharmacist, developed an interest in the pharmaceutical industry, and actually worked in that industry for over a decade. Following Booth, I had the opportunity to become involved in the biotechnology arena and then ultimately founded TESARO. Since that time we've had the opportunity to bring several drugs to market and those drugs help patients not only in the treatment of their cancer, but also the symptoms associated with cancer chemotherapy. People describe the Booth approach as teaching one how to think, not necessarily what to think and that is just so true. I founded a business. I really have been able to carry that forward and learn by asking penetrating questions and trying to really get to the truth.
Lonnie Moulder:
Booth helped me discover my "why" in understanding all the aspects of leading a business that as someone who was trained as a pharmacist wasn't exposed to. It really elevated my thinking around all the levers that are important in operating the business. I'm proud to be part of the alumni network associated with Booth. Wherever I go throughout the world, there's great recognition on what Booth is, what Booth means and the quality of the people that have come from Booth. I'm proud to be a Booth alum.
Lonnie Moulder:
The Distinguished Alumni Award is really a recognition for what all the people at TESARO do. This company is successful because of the many passionate, committed people that want to make a real difference and leave a legacy and TESARO, we're doing it in the field of cancer. If a Booth student asked me for advice, I would tell them to follow their passion and to gather in as many experiences as possible to build a strong foundation, to truly make a difference, whether that be in business or in society.
Defying convention has given Leon (Lonnie) O. Moulder Jr., ’97 (XP-66), the potential to change how biotechnology companies do business and, in the process, to treat and improve the lives of patients living with cancer. As the CEO of TESARO Inc., an oncology-focused, Boston-area biopharma company he cofounded in 2010, Moulder made an unorthodox decision that distinguishes his venture from other biotechnology startups: the company not only researches and develops new and meaningful medications, but also markets and sells these products throughout the world.
TESARO has received regulatory approvals in more than 30 countries for its first two medicines and is currently launching these products in the United States and Europe. The company employs approximately 800 people globally who are committed to positively impacting the lives of people living with cancer. Moulder and TESARO cofounder Dr. Mary Lynne Hedley are co-recipients of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 National Overall Award. “This company is successful because of the many passionate, committed people who want to make a real difference and leave a legacy,” Moulder said. “At TESARO, we’re doing it in the field of cancer.”
“I’m proud to be part of the alumni network associated with Booth. Wherever I go throughout the world, there’s great recognition of what Booth is, what Booth means, and the quality of people that have come from Booth.”
President, Vassar College
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
Being recognized by Chicago Booth is a thrill. It means a lot to me. I remember working so hard there and never thinking that I would be able to be successful with all those skills, and so to be honored in this way, it makes me feel good and I really enjoy being a representative of the school.
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
I started as president of Vassar six months ago, and it's an all-encompassing role. One is in charge obviously of all the finances, the academic, the faculty. Thinking about advancement over the future of where Vassar College is going takes every skill I ever learned to be able to do this job.
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
The Chicago Approach, where you learn not what to think, but how to think has fully influenced my career. It is the root of liberal arts. It's exactly what Vassar College is all about as well, and it's tremendous to be able to spread that and really lead in that exact same approach here.
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
One of the things Chicago Booth did for me is just recognize how much you can actually work. I mean the quality and the intensiveness of the classes there, I will never forget. They'd never let you take the low road there. You had to really work. I almost failed accounting. But that process of really challenging yourself to the finest degree taught me just how excellent I could be and what others could do around me, so it stayed with me my whole life.
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
A moment of truth I've had even in the last six months as the president of Vassar is recognizing here how many expansive ideas and goals and visions we have for Vassar College and yet limited resources. Well, how do you do that? How do you achieve what you want to, which is infinite, with the resources that exist, which are always finite?
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
I've really been able to draw on my Chicago Booth–trained skills to address those problems. The economic thinking, the really trade-offs between equity and efficiency and how you think about that, the ethical underpinnings of business problems and business dilemmas—all of that I feel I was primed for by Chicago Booth, and now get to really use to solve the problems I'm looking at at Vassar College.
Elizabeth Howe Bradley:
Chicago Booth is much more than a set of classes, a particular curriculum, specific skills. It gives you all that, but it really gives you a way of thinking, gives you confidence. It gives you a mindset that is we could actually be visionary and bold and achieve things that haven't been achieved before
After focusing throughout her career on enhancing healthcare globally, in 2017, Elizabeth Howe Bradley, ’86, was elected unanimously as the 11th president of Vassar College, holding joint appointments as professor of political science and professor of science, technology, and society. “It’s an all-encompassing role,” Bradley said. “It takes using every skill I ever learned to be able to do this job.”
Before arriving at Vassar, Bradley spent more than 20 years at Yale University, first as a doctoral student—she earned a PhD in epidemiology and public health, graduating in 1996—and later as a professor in public health. She led revolutionary innovations in the delivery of cardiovascular, long-term, and end-of-life care, and in health-care management.
“The Chicago Approach, where you learn not what to think, but how to think, has fully influenced my career,” Bradley said. “It is the root of liberal arts. It’s exactly what Vassar College is all about as well. I am enjoying leading here with that same approach.”
“Chicago Booth gives you a mind-set that is, ‘We could be visionary and bold, and achieve things that haven’t been achieved before.’”
Cofounder and Head of Strategy, Hello Tractor
Lavandez Jones:
Hello Tractor is an agricultural technology company focused on easing access to farm machinery by using technology. We are operational in six countries in Africa, with our principal market being Nigeria.
Lavandez Jones:
So at Chicago Booth, you're taught to think critically, you're taught to challenge, and you're taught to try to understand and put these things together into a framework, into structures that are long lasting and are not going to just be fly-by-night solutions.
Lavandez Jones:
In sub-Saharan Africa there are challenges with the availability of farm machinery scenery. New solutions and new models have to be put in place to be able to ensure that the smallholder farmers that dominate the landscape across sub-Saharan Africa get access to the farm machinery that's going to improve their lives. Our approach to that is to use technology and create more opportunities for these farmers.
Lavandez Jones:
There is no one script. I can't just purely look at one framework or one model and say that is what's going to work. I need to be able to take insights from this area, insights from that area, and then I need to try and iterate it so that I can come to a solution.
Lavandez Jones:
There are going to be surprises that are going to come along the way, and understanding how to navigate those surprises, how to adapt is incredibly important, and those are some of the key aspects of what I got from the Chicago Booth education.
Lavandez Jones:
My time in Chicago Booth was incredibly formative and incredibly shaping. It's made me the person that I am, the critical thinking, the ability to think through challenges, and to have the fortitude to work through problems. As a Distinguished Alumni winner, I hope that I'm able to collaborate with others who are looking to do some fantastic things. That's why you go to Booth in the first place.
LaVandez (Van) T. Jones, ’14, came to Chicago Booth with a clear goal in mind: to make an impact on a global scale. Jones cofounded Hello Tractor, an agritech startup that won first place in the 2014 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge. Hello Tractor uses smart technologies to connect farmers to productivity-enhancing technologies across the emerging and frontier markets.
By 2015, Hello Tractor had completed its first sales cycle for Nigeria, with approximately $6.5 million in the pipeline. It has since expanded into Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Senegal. Through a $2 million partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Hello Tractor has been able to build the most networked fleet of tractors across the continent and provide job opportunities to hundreds of young people in rural Nigeria.
“Chicago Booth was where I needed to be; that’s why I keep in contact with the people I met there,” Jones said. “We’re all going down a path of curiosity, of trying to create something new for ourselves, for our families, for our communities, for our countries, for the world.”
“My time at Chicago Booth was incredibly formative and incredibly shaping. It’s made me—over the last several years—the person that I am.”
Three leaders in higher education share their approach to the unique challenges they’ve faced—from COVID-19 to changes in college culture.
The Power of Listening in Higher Education
In Interpersonal Dynamics with professor Lisa Stefanac, ’09, students learn to build relationships through open, vulnerable communication.
The Data of Feelings
From an office in a quiet Alpine town, Erni, ’91, started his firm in search of something more elusive than wealth or success—true happiness.
Partners Group Cofounder Marcel Erni on What Matters Most
