Board of Education

For nearly 35 years, the Board of Overseers at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management has helped shape the school’s direction. Its 35 CEOs, CFOs, and senior corporate leaders function as the dean’s primary consultants, though Carlson also has advisory boards for specific programs.

The board recently identified the need for a larger undergraduate business program. Board members lobbied legislators in 2006 on behalf of the school, arguing that the undergraduate program was too small to meet the needs of Minnesota businesses. At the time, the school could serve only 12 percent of its applicants. Carlson School Dean Alison Davis-Blake says that board members were instrumental in landing $26.6 million from the state to expand the program by 50 percent and build Hanson Hall. “They were our ambassadors to the legislature,” she says.

Similarly, at St. Cloud State University, members of the G.R. Herberger College of Business’s advisory board lobbied the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU) to expanding the school’s MBA program to Maple Grove. “The outside perspective is really important when MnSCU makes these decisions, so the advisory board really helped us get it approved,” Dean Diana Lawson says.

More Robust Resources

Board members offer more than just their insight; they often share company resources, too. Edwin “Skip” Gage, who recently completed a three-year term as chair of Carlson’s board, says he suggested that the school’s diversity director connect with local corporations’ diversity directors to get help broadening diversity in Carlson’s students, faculty, and board. Some board members passed on the names of their companies’ diversity officers.

“Access to these corporations is a really important part of the partnership,” says Gage, who is chairman and CEO of Gage Marketing Group, LLC, in Plymouth. “When a high-level executive serves on the board, the school gets access to all levels of the corporation, students get access to internships and employment, and professors get access to the corporations to do research.”

The Carlson board also urges school leaders to keep the global economy in mind. “The board clearly articulated that one thing businesses value is international experience,” Davis-Blake says. “These conversations influenced our thinking. Board members volunteered their sites around the world for internships and worked with us to make the implementation of this requirement better.” Ultimately, the Carlson School included a requirement that all students study or intern abroad.