Dear Friends,

It is a privilege and honor to commence my eighth year as the President of the Kellogg-Recanati Alumni Club, the Alumni Club of the Middle East's top Executive MBA program.

Together with my Board, over the last 6 years, we have put the foundations in place to take one major step forwards towards our vision, that our Alumni Club will in the future offer sufficient value, that it will become a key differentiator in the decision process of future MBA students in our region, complimenting our already, best-in-class academic program.

As a means to an end to the above, we comprehensively surveyed our alumni in 2003, and due to a tremendous 62% response rate, can confidently state that we know what the majority of you want.

During 2004, we focused on making the most popular events you requested, happen, which in turn helped strengthen the KR network and contributed to making KR a true, life-long experience.

The same survey strengthened our alumni helping alumni theme, by identifying many of you willing to contribute to the Club in one of many ways, including event sponsorship, event organizing, alumni job placement, joining our alumni Board, being a guest speaker, having access to special people or places, hosting alumni events at employer's premises, and more.  One of the Club's challenges will be to capture this potential of our best assets, our 'KR assets'.

In October 2004, the KR Alumni Club was voted International Kellogg Alumni Club of the Year, by Kellogg, surfacing above 46 other International Kellogg Alumni Clubs.  This award is an excellent achievement for the KR Alumni Club, the KR Program, and for the region, and has already generated significant local press, and high visibility at Kellogg.  

During 2005, in addition to doing 'more of the same', we tried to 'raise the bar' by implementing both a local and a global strategy, where the former would provide more and more value to KR Alumni, and the latter would provide value to the global Kellogg community. 

Our local/global strategy was recognised on 20th October 2005, when the KR Alumni Club was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Club Leadership Award at a special presentation ceremony during the annual dinner of the Kellogg Alumni Advisory Board (KAAB).  Once again, we have managed to position the KR Alumni Club, the KR program and the region in a positive light, and I want to thank my team, the Kellogg-Recanati Alumni Board, for all their hard work and commitment.

2005 also saw the first 2 projects successfully launch within our Kellogg-Recanati Cares initiative, the umbrella name that encompasses all community projects, managed and manned by KR Alumni.

During 2006, in addition to strengthening our Board, organising more events, expanding our year 2005 KR Cares projects, introducing a number of new activities, and much more, 2 main activities stand out, and as a result, we can all be very proud.  Firstly, our Aid for the North initiative was a remarkable humanitarian aid project that raised and delivered $700,000 of supplies directly to those who needed them, when they needed them.   Secondly, our global activities, led by our Best Practices project, which is the first global Kellogg Alumni Club project, promises to drive a new culture of collaboration between Kellogg Alumni Clubs around the world.

Once again, our efforts did not go unnoticed by Kellogg, and in November 2006, I had great pride accepting the International Kellogg Alumni Club of the Year Award on behalf of our club.

The KR Alumni Club had won 3 prestigious awards from Kellogg in 3 consecutive years, and to this day, remains the only club, out of about 70 Kellogg alumni clubs worldwide, to have won 3 Kellogg annual awards.

2006 represented a major milestone in the life of the KR program, and as a result, over 350 alumni, students and spouses attended our Celebrating 10 years of KR event in early December, representing one of the largest alumni events in Kellogg's history.

In 2007, we held a number of speaker events and also observed specific KR classes organising their own exceptional social events. It was also the year KR integrated YouTube into our Club's website, and was the year that with the full support of Kellogg, we published a new edition of the Kellogg-Recanati MBA Handbook, and made it freely available in PDF format.

2008 continued with speaker events and with more class 'fun' events (cycling, jeeping, camping, etc) happening throughout the year.  2008 was the year we saw our 6th joint event with the Recanati Executive MBA Alumni Club, and was the year we forged new relationships with other significant alumni clubs in Israel, building the infrastructure for giving KR alumni access to many more Israeli businessmen during 2009.

And in early November, nearly 200 alumni celebrated the annual Deans' Dinner, rekindling friendships, networking, donating to charity and more.

2009 saw 7 events, including 2 guest speaker events, 1 panel event on the global crisis, 1 'Women in management' event, our first annual International Kellogg Connect event, 1 joint event with the Recanati Executive Alumni Club, and of course, the annual Deans Dinner, held on 2nd November in the presence of Kellogg's Dean Emeritus Dipak Jain and Dean Emeritus Don Jacobs.

Having a vision is one thing, but getting there is another. Long gone are the days when the Board of the KR Alumni Club can deliver events with minimal resources.  The success of the KR Alumni Club is strongly related to the strength and size of the active members of the KR Alumni Board, and I thank them all.  We're a great team, riding on a train that's going to an exciting destination!  If you would like to help accelerate our vision, jump on our train and join us in our journey by offering a little of your time, or if you have any suggestions, please contact me directly.

Our Alumni Club has now grown to 600 members, boasting some of the top business executives in the region, spanning most industries, and all continents. You can meet many of them, by simply attending Club events!

Finally, remember that if you do need to refer to your course notes, before blowing off the dust, first visit the KR Handbook, online at www.kr04.net, where 27 KR courses are summarized. Alternatively, download you can now download your own, person version, in PDF format. This project demonstrated how a team of 60 people, made up of Kellogg and Recanati Professors, members of the class of KR04, and KR faculty members could together produce something of significant value, and on a global basis. To date, the website has been visited by over 200,000 people, spanning over 40 countries and all continents.

Best regards,

Stuart Ballan, MBA (2001)

President, Kellogg-Recanati Alumni Club

Member, Kellogg Alumni Advisory Board

Email: mailto:stuart@msisrael.net