W. Edwards Deming Memorial Conference
MBA Under Siege: Reimagining Management Education
 May 11, 2010
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus
113 West 60th Street, New York, New York

Even prior to the financial crisis, MBA education has been in the line of fire. Scholars and external observers blame business schools for educating the wrong people in the wrong ways and paving the
way for a slew of irresponsible management practices. Business schools are under pressure and some have reacted with rushed changes to their curriculum. If the critics are right, however, it is time to
reevaluate MBA education more seriously.

Honoring its Jesuit roots, Fordham Graduate School of Business wishes to provide an opportunity
for those concerned with the future of management education to discuss ways out of the crisis.
Together with Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education and the United Nations PRME initiative, Fordham GBA is holding a 1 day conference on May 11. Conference attendees will be able to
hear from and discuss with some of the nation’s most respected management scholars:

1. Michael C. Jensen: Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus,
   Harvard Business School. Professor Jensen is widely acclaimed for his pioneering work on the theory of the firm, shareholder value maximization, and agency theory. In his recent work
   he has focused on integrity as a managerial imperative. He is the founder and editor of the
   Journal of Financial Economics and a past president of the American Finance Association.
2. R. Edwards Freeman: Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration, Darden Business School, University of Virginia; Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. Professor Freedman enjoys an international reputation as the “father” of the stakeholder theory of the firm, which is sometimes viewed as a humane counterweight to
   Michael Jensen’s “shareholder theory.”
3. Henry Mintzberg: Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, Desautels Faculty of
   Management, McGill University. Professor Mintzberg is an outspoken advocate for reform of graduate management education. He is the author of the national best-seller Managers, Not
   MBA’s, and is a two time winner of the McKinsey Award for best Harvard Business Review
   article. He is also a Member of the Order of Canada.
4. Rakesh Khurana: Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard
   Business School. Professor Khurana’s most recent book, From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, chronicles the evolution of management as a profession, with particular focus on the
   institutional development of the MBA. He is the 2007 winner of the Association of American Publishers’ Best Professional/Scholarly Book on Business, Finance and Management
   and the 2008 winner of the Max Weber Award by the American Sociological Association.
5. Opening Comments - Andrea Gabor: Andrea Gabor is the author of three books including,
   The Man Who Discovered Quality: How W. Edwards Deming Brought the Quality Revolution
   to America. Professor Gabor has written for U.S. News & World Report, Business Week,
   The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Harvard Business Review, and Fortune.
6. Moderator - Kelley Holland: Ms. Holland’s articles regularly appear in The New York Times
   and the International Herald Tribune. Her most recent articles include: Under New Management:
   Stay Out of the Bunker, Post financial crisis, B-school education comes under the lens, In the downturn, business schools face questions over teaching, and Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?

Goal of the conference:
The goal of the conference is to bring thought leaders and high-level stakeholders of management
education together to continue the discussion about the future of management education.
The conference will be dealing with three major issues that influence management education:

Michael Jensen and Ed Freeman will discuss the purpose of the firm, while both Henry Mintzberg
and Rakesh Khurana will examine the role of the manager and the consequences for management Education.

For a detailed agenda, please click here.

* tentatively confirmed, all other speakers are confirmed