Roll up your sleeves and get involved, urges Alumni President

AUTHOR: Lachlan Colquhoun   DATE: 01.05.05   ISSUE 1, 2005
The top flight of business schools, says Matthew Stubbs, are a product not only of the quality of students and faculty, but the continuing involvement of the alumni.

Stubbs, 36, who graduated from AGSM in 1996, is the current Alumni President and one of several alumni who recently signed up to pledge an annual donation to the school, for each of the next three years.

“A key ingredient of the great business school is to engage the alumni across a number of dimensions and in different ways,” says Stubbs, an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in Sydney.

"The AGSM network has played an important role in my life."

“Its about being willing to give time to the school, to other members of the alumni community, and creating forums to enable you to interact with those people.

“And importantly there’s the financial commitment, because I believe we have a role to play there too.”

The AGSM network has played an important role in Stubbs’ life since he first came to the school.

"You get out of a network what you put into it."

While still doing his MBA, AGSM found him a paid role as a research assistant to Professor Lex Donaldson, and helped line up a summer job at consultancy Booz Allen.

A connection with an AGSM alumnus also helped him get his first job after graduation, at Bankers Trust.

These days, while busy with his job and family – which now includes twin boys – the AGSM still plays a significant role in his life.

“The school has given me a lot of support - I’m all about putting something back in and helping build up the network."

In addition to Stubbs’ role as Alumni President, one of the features of his week is a Sunday game of touch football at Tamarama with a group comprising a number of AGSM alumni.

“The school has really given me a lot of support, and I’m all about putting something back in and helping build up the network,” says Stubbs, who also received an AGSM scholarship in the second year of his MBA.

Stubbs describes his ongoing involvement, and his donor pledge, as a way to “continue to invest” in the school to “strengthen the brand, and strengthen the network.”

“Rather than sitting back and expecting things to be done for me I want to actually go in there, roll my sleeves up and help make things happen,” says Stubbs.

“And if everyone in the school network adopts that view then we’ll go from strength to strength.”