Paying it Forward
Creating Tomorrow’s Leaders in Business Through Academe

In 1944, KPMG Foundation, AACSB International, and the Graduate Management Admission Council founded The PhD Project as a means to increase the pool of diverse candidates for positions in management by significantly increasing the number of minority role models and mentors in the front of the classroom. While our success in increasing the numbers of minority faculty and the qualitative impact on business education are documented, the personal connection we have with doctoral students, faculty, administrators and in many cases their families, has been the most gratifying.

In these stories, you will read about the aggregate impact The PhD Project has had on doctoral students, faculty and administrators, who are not merely succeeding, but are collaborating and influencing each other and the next generation of business school faculty and corporate leaders. Their success stories—singly, but especially together—tell how this critical mass is helping to ensure success through the strong support network The PhD Project has created.

As the president of The PhD Project, I am proud of this program’s remarkable success and grateful for the time, talent and financial support it has received from so many corporations, professional and academic organizations and the over 1,300 minority faculty and doctoral students who have come through The PhD Project. We could not have come so far, and accomplished so much, without them.

However, the individuals whose stories are chronicled in this book, along with the hundreds that are not, are the true heroes and genuinely embody the term, “paying it forward.” Their stories are inspiring, uplifting, encouraging and most importantly—true. We applaud them and wish them continued success on their journeys.

- Blane Ruschak, President