HBS Alum Dinners Conclude

Ten Harvard Business School students piled into rental cars to be whisked from the Allston campus across the river to Business School Professor Howard H. Stevenson’s Cambridge home for dinner one mid-April night.

The dinner event—hosted by Stevenson’s son Andrew L. Stevenson, who graduated from the Business School in 2001—was one out of the eleven total in the Alumni Dinner Series. The dinners, which kicked off on March 24 and concluded on April 14, were organized through the joint effort of the Business School’s Alumni Relations and Student Association.

“It was great hearing the hosts talk about their lives after HBS, especially how they still interface with people from sections and class and how to take away most from relationships you make at your time at the Business School,” outgoing Student Association Co-President Patrick S. Chun ’04 said.

Justine K. Lelchuk, another one of the first-year Business School students who dined at Stevenson’s home, said the dinner was “a seamless night in terms of good food and great conversation,” describing the three course catered dinner as “a smorgasbord of delicious food.”

Lelchuk, who also helped organize the series, added that the dinners were a great opportunity for students to get to know alumni outside of recruitment and classroom settings.

“It was a really personal way to get to know an alum and a chance to hear the good, the bad, and ugly after graduating the Business School,” she said.

According to Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Lauren Y. Gilbert, a total of 104 of the Business School’s nearly 2000 students attended these dinners.

“For alums, the dinners are a great way to connect back to the Business School,” Gilbert said.

Student Association representatives advertised the dinner events, and Alumni Relations offered dinner spots through e-mail.

Gilbert noted that students and alumni alike praised the dinner series highly.

“This was a really successful program, and we received excellent reviews from both the host and students,” she said. “This program is something we will continue in the future.”

Lelchuk said her favorite moment of the dinner she attended was witnessing the relationship between Professor Stevenson and his son Andrew.

“It was a great moment to see these two incredibly intelligent bright men who happen to be father and son and business partners,” she said. “It was nice to see that the HBS network extends beyond campus—and that there’s a human aspect to it.”