By Matt Holtry, President, Net Impact, MBA Class of 2009

In the world of Net Impact, Mark Albion is like a celebrity.  Here is a guy who was a Harvard Professor, started the Social Venture Network way back in 1987, and co-founded Net Impact before “green” was a hot topic.  He rubs elbows with the Mandela family on a regular basis.  And world leaders from Ronald Reagan to Mother Teresa (wow—that’s a big gap) have praised his work.  But most importantly, he is always willing to make time for every individual student.

When we initially discussed his visit, I was worried about creating a back-breaking schedule since Mark is only slightly older than our MBA’s.  His reaction?  He only sleeps 4 hours per night, he wants to meet with as many students as possible, he is here to serve, and please feel free to pack his itinerary as full as possible thank-you-very-much.  So in Mark’s whirlwind tour of just 22 hours in Happy Valley, he met individually with students, shared his success (and failure) stories about social ventures with Net Impact members over dinner, gave a lecture to a near-full auditorium about his book More Than Money and how MBA’s can ask the important questions to make the right career choices, shared drinks at the bar, and woke up early to discuss academia and politics over breakfast.

I still find myself humbled that someone as busy as Mark was willing to share so much of his time and expertise with our group—when you meet Mark, you can tell he is focused on you as a person and not thinking of the 300 things on his to-do list.  He is genuinely interested in every individual’s story and he takes the time to celebrate the successes of every chapter.  I know Mark has given me a lot to think about and I look forward to his future 3am e-mails offering career advice.