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Bernhard Blog

Hi! I just got back from a 2-week Executive Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts professional development program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. It was an amazing program! There were 50 arts leaders from across the U.S. as well as arts leaders from the U.K., Australia, Canada, and Singapore. The woman from Singapore was Danish and was running a professional theater that presented Western Theater in English. The teachers were all from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and they were outstanding! The approach was very Socratic and there was a fabulous sharing of ideas. It was like going through an intensive, short MBA program. We stayed at the Schwab Center which is a residence hall for their executive professional development program. All the classes were held at the Graduate Business School Building. We began at 8:00 AM every morning and finished at 5:00 PM, which included short breaks and lunch. I think we had something like 40 separate programs throughout the 2-week period. They divided the group into study groups of 6 and we would meet each evening from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. We even had a full day of classes on the 4th of July and the topics included an overview of corporate finance and a discussion regarding Unrelated Business Income Tax issues for nonprofits. We did get to go hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the evening of July 3rd and watch the fireworks. Although we had an extremely rigorous schedule, the teaching was so incredibly good and the program participants were such extremely talented and intelligent people, that the time flew by.

Randy