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A special thanks once again to the legions of Kelloggians who spent their Saturday making the event a success

Convocation for the Kellogg School’s Class of 2008 was a time for self-reflection, shared by faculty and students alike. Held June 21 in Northwestern University’s Welsh-Ryan Arena, the celebration put an exclamation mark on the Kellogg experience for nearly 1,000 members of the school’s Full- and Part-Time MBA Programs who will now go out and put their leadership education into action.

Proud friends and family members surrounded the procession of purple gowns with congratulatory cheers from their seats. Once the arena was filled, Kellogg Senior Associate Dean Sunil Chopra began the ceremonies by welcoming attendees; then Northwestern President Henry S. Bienen praised the graduates and introduced Kellogg Dean Dipak C. Jain, whom he called “a splendid dean and great friend.”

Global in orientation, newest graduates of Executive MBA Program eager to put their leadership to work around the world

Families cheered, cameras flashed and faculty beamed as 117 graduates of the Kellogg School’s Executive MBA Program received their diplomas on June 14. Before a capacity audience in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, members of EMP classes 69 and 70 celebrated their accomplishment and thanked friends, family and co-workers for supporting the pursuit of their degrees.

"We know what we know, we know what we don't know, and every person matters. That helps to keep things in perspective. Yes, you may work hard, but the team plays a big part and so does luck and timing. It's not all about you."

Additional (Kellogg) Insight: Professional Forecasters: Innocent until proven strategic

Imagine you are the chief operating officer for a Fortune 500 technology company and you have to sign off on a major pricing increase for your firm’s best-selling product line in two days. All the internal data you have—labor costs, product sales/growth trends, competitors’ and vendors’ anticipated pricing—support the price increase. But you are still hesitant. Then, perusing Business Week on the morning train, you come across an “Investment Outlook” article. Your eyes widen. It’s filled with predictions by professional economic forecasters like this one: “Better pricing trends will keep corporate profits better than expected but also greatly heighten inflation fears next year.” Now you’re relieved, confident that the price increase is the right course to take. After all, professional forecasters have no incentive to distort their predictions.

Or do they?

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"I Have a Kellogg MBA"

Selim Bassoul '81

For a guy who claims he can’t even boil water, Selim Bassoul ’81 has kept things cooking at his company.

As CEO of Elgin, Ill.-based Middleby, a commercial food service equipment manufacturer, Bassoul and his team have attracted widespread praise since a turnaround effort in 2001 rescued the firm from near bankruptcy. Since then, Middleby has fought back to garner heaps of critical praise and land on Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies and in the top 10 of Forbes’ Top 200 Best Small Companies.

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