©2001 Evanston Photographic

Dear Alumni,

Greetings from Evanston, where much change and innovation is starting to take place as we look forward to the Class of 2003 joining us shortly.

As I hope you know by now, I assumed the duties of dean from Don Jacobs on July 1, and the first thing I must do is thank him, personally, for all his years of service to the Kellogg School and for leaving it in such a wonderful position.

I'm deeply honored by the responsibility that has been bestowed upon me, having been selected the 11th dean of the Kellogg School. It is as if someone handed me a wonderful, thriving plant with the highest level of responsibility to care for it. Now we must strengthen the roots and grow the branches wider.

Given the Kellogg culture of teamwork, I am confident that my faculty colleagues, students, alumni, corporate supporters and staff will work with me to nurture this plant and keep it healthy and growing. Without your support this cannot be achieved. You will be hearing more from me about key initiatives that will primarily be focused on building the Kellogg School brand and its academic reputation -- globally. I want to focus on new research initiatives for the Kellogg faculty and the publishing of books, cases and articles of general interest. All of these things contribute to the Kellogg School's academic reputation and your continuous learning.

I want to strengthen the connection between Kellogg alumni and the school with links like MBA Updates -- short courses taught around the world -- and reunions in Evanston. I will connect with alumni by visiting the cities worldwide where we have clubs. We also want our alumni to strengthen ties with other alums through the Kellogg Web site, which is being redesigned and should be ready for its fifth launch by the end of August.

Likewise, we need our alumni to be ambassadors by spreading our brand name through word-of-mouth marketing, searching out the best prospective students and companies to hire our graduates. We have the support of our recruiters, donors and staff, but we need our alumni to grow the Kellogg School brand so it is top of mind.

We also want to establish a link between alumni and the faculty. As we continue to retain and attract first-class faculty, it will be important for them to have access to alumni for research that can make an impact on businesses. We will need your cooperation for supporting research and cutting edge initiatives.

Finally, I want to thank our donors and recruiters for all the support they have given Kellogg over the years. I hope to meet as many of you as possible and establish a connection whereby you can call me with your ideas about how to keep the Kellogg School the benchmark by which all other business schools are judged.

Please feel free to send me an e-mail at d-jain@kellogg.nwu.edu, call me at 847.491.3300 or visit me when you are on campus. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts and innovative ideas about how we can keep improving what many consider to be the premier management school in the world.