Ivey Network Southern California Chapter

 

Ivey Alumni Association History

The Ivey alumni clubs were initiated, both in Canada and internationally, by Jack Wettlaufer, who for forty years played a leading role in shaping and developing the Richard Ivey School of Business. During his tenure as Dean (1968 – 1978), he saw the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school as an opportunity, in 1973, to introduce the concept of clubs comprised of graduates. In his published recollections of the birthday parties celebrated in various cities, he wrote:

“We began to look to our alumni as another source of ideas and financial aid… We saw networks as key not only to a strong business school, but also to a healthy post-school professional life as well.”

The first club was organized in Toronto with Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver quick to follow.

“The list of people who breathed life into these alumni programs is too long to recite but, they know who they are and I am forever grateful,” Jack wrote.

He, and they, have left a legacy of flourishing Ivey clubs around the world. Now, after 75 years of developing leaders who occupy influential positions globally, the network of diverse graduates, culturally, and career-wise, is literally an international “Who’s Who” of business.

The early days of the Ivey Alumni Association, Southern California Chapter

Our collective memories suggest that the first social gathering was at the Jonathan Club to introduce the Dean, Larry Tapp, and other representatives from the School, including Glenn Yonemitsu, Executive Director – Advancement.  We think it was in Feb/March 1998 because it was a great time (winter) for the London contingent to visit Southern California and, Dean Tapp, simply traveled to Los Angeles from his winter vacation home in Palm Desert.

The purpose of the event was to provide the first opportunity for Southern California Ivey alumni to gather socially and also receive an update on the School’s activities and future plans, since the official name change to the Richard Ivey School of Business in 1997.  It was a very successful gathering with approx 25 attendees, almost all of whom had graduated from The Western Business School.  The first year graduating class that had the Richard Ivey School of Business on the diploma was 1997 (Chris Ripley, Todd Purdy, Laura Erskine, Tom Hugh, John Marshall, et al.)  However, regardless of whether one graduated pre- or post 1997, we uniformly promote The Richard Ivey School of Business because that is the branding that is synergistic for the future of the school.  Besides if you noticed, even in 1969 there was a brass plaque by the main entrance with Richard Ivey School of Business on it as well as a carved name of the benefactor’s family over the doors as far back as can be remembered, and it was duly named certainly in 1969 when many of us were on the UWO campus. 

Preceding this 1998 event by possibly 6 – 8 months, the original communication from the Dean came to us to put a small group of Ivey California alumni together to consider the merits of the School establishing a new Executive Management program, very likely in Northern California, Silicon Valley / Palo Alto area.  Marketing Professor Adrian Ryans had previously taught at Stanford and had a good rapport with some of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and had written several cases on companies with which he consulted while at Stanford.  Professor Ryans was the Dean at Ivey for a period of time preceding Larry Tapp’s tenure.

Regarding the concept of an Executive MBA program based in Silicon Valley:  To summarize, our feedback to the School was that it was our belief it would be a poor use of the School’s teaching talent and financial resources, primarily because there already were very well established, well financed and well recognized Executive Management programs sponsored by the major business schools and many other second and third tier schools

However, out of this communication came the request from the School to establish an Ivey Alumni California Chapter, requesting Don Anderson MBA’70, to do the initial organizing — and eventually our recommendation to establish separate and distinct Northern and Southern California chapters. 

Anyone who has lived in this state understands that there are really three “regions” that make up California which has a population of 33.8 million (about 1.5 M larger than Canada) is growing more rapidly due to migration patterns to warmer climates in the west, southwest and south.  It also would be the 5^th or 6^th largest country in the world in terms of GDP, if it were a sovereign nation. 

The most northerly part of the state is more rural and the economy and population life style demographics relates more to the adjacent state of Oregon on the northern border.  However, the majority of the population in NorCal is located in the San Francisco Bay Area comprised of SF County, San Jose and Santa Clara south of the peninsula, Marin County over the Golden Gate Bridge to the north, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties over The Bay Bridge to the east.  NorCal also extends out the I-80 past the state capital of Sacramento to the Nevada state line where it boast several ski resorts along I-80 and I-50 and  shares the South Lake Tahoe resort town.

Our Southern California Chapter territory starts below San Luis Obispo on the coast, home of Cal State University Cal Poly drifting down through the wine country of Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County (Inland Empire) ending in San Diego County to the south.  Most of our alumni are located in this area that is about 200 miles of coastline and realistically about 45 miles inland.  Although we do have a couple of people in the oil business in Bakersfield and an Intrawest VP in Mammoth Lakes working on the development of the Mammoth Mountain ski resort expansion in the Sierra Mountains!

After some experimentation, Don Anderson called an organizing meeting in October 2000 at the Gulfstream restaurant in Newport Beach where about 16 alumni gathered representing LA and OC interests.  He asked for volunteers and assembled a Social Events Committee for LA and one for OC, as well as the Career Management / Immigration advice group.  These three groups have evolved in membership as people have moved out of State, careers have intensified or families were started and lives reprioritized, or Board members just needed a break to give others a chance to serve. 

As you can see from our photo gallery, we’ve come a long way since that organizing meeting and the participation of the chapter has increased.  Our goal is to have every Ivey graduate participate in at least one of our events sometime during their stay in Southern California.  The Chapter represents a vessel where there is something for everyone.  For some it is a good place to find a touchstone when they arrive from Stuttgart, Germany on a two year assignment, or fresh from Ivey to start their first career job.  The new grads provide a great opportunity for the older folks to soak up some of their enthusiasm and get reinvigorated, or an opportunity to provide some mentoring thoughts when asked.  For others who have been here since 1963 and are retired doting grandparents, it is a chance to renew their roots and re-connect with people of similar educational experience at Ivey and catch up on what’s new in the businesses of the day. 

For many it has become a good network of friends with whom we can enjoy a glass of beer or wine and enjoy conversation over dinner in a nice restaurant that we otherwise may not experience.  Some alumni consider the Chapter events as a guided tour of Southern California and partake as tourists.

With the constant inflow of new HBA graduates principally in the investment banking and private equity business, and the transferees who are here to tap the potential of the Asia Pacific gateway or the huge “GDP” economic benefits, the future of the chapter is secure.  The rest as they say, is history!