Hi Gang,

I really am a very lucky fellow. It is really amazing to visit Kellogg alums around the country, give leadership presentations to interesting companies, and meet with fascinating associations. Last week in San Francisco I had the opportunity to do all three!

It is always great to meet with the Kellogg alums in San Francisco, and this time we met in the offices of Salesforce in the city. The alums are working and running businesses and not-for-profits of all sizes and areas, many on a global scale. It was fun to meet with several alums that were students from my very first Kellogg class 10 years ago! (Have I really been teaching for that long??!!)

I also had the opportunity to spend time with the team at Aduro Biotech in Berkeley. The CEO is Steve Isaacs, a great friend and a wonderful example of a values-based leader. I have known Steve for more than 20 years, back to the days of our collaboration between Baxter and Cerus. Steve and his family also hosted Julie, me, and the “Kraemer gang” on our trip last year to Kenya (I am trying to keep some of those pictures hidden 😉 ).  Aduro recently went public and has a market cap of $2 billion!!!

Last, but certainly not least, I had the chance to spend time in Palo Alto with the folks from VLAB. The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab is the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology, and people. They host the largest ongoing gathering of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and thought leaders at monthly events at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, with an ecosystem that includes 25,000+ Bay Area influencers. We spent a very enjoyable evening discussing my favorite topic: values-based leadership.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!!!