Imfino News

BOSTON, September 4, 2018 — Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced the 2018 recipients of its Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowships. Established in 1998 by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and Richard L. Menschel (MBA 1959), a former director of the Foundation and a limited partner at Goldman Sachs, to encourage students from the nonprofit sector to attend HBS, these fellowships enable the School to award approximately $10,000 each to seven to ten incoming MBA students.

Since 1990, 209 incoming students have received the fellowship. Recipients of the award have served in leadership roles in nonprofit and public sector organizations, and demonstrate a strong commitment to continued career paths in these areas. New recipients are invited to participate in events with current and former recipients, as well as local social enterprise leaders, in an effort to create a network of individuals committed to working in social enterprise.

The 2018 Goldsmith Fellows are:

RISHABH AGARWAL, who comes to HBS after a year as a financial analyst and four years at Success Academy, a charter school network aiming to reverse the achievement gap in New York. While there he served as principal, managing 47 staff members, and helping the school achieve scores in the top 1% of the state for both Math and English Language Arts tests. HBS and the Goldsmith Fellowship will help him further his goal of “providing a rigorous and quality education to students from low-income families.”

MOLLIE BREEN, who brings three years of experience as an Applied Research Mathematician at the National Security Agency, where she led the creation of innovative products and processes. As an incoming student for HBS’s new MS/MBA program, Breen wants to “combine the engineering and business education with my national intelligence community background for the social impact of artificial intelligence.”

KAUSHAL JAIN, who previously worked at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, where he oversaw Malaria Supply Chain planning for multiple countries in Asia, Southern Africa, and Mesoamerica; and created a roadmap for zero malaria cases and deaths in India by 2030. Jain says the Goldsmith Fellowship will provide him with “an ideal opportunity to brainstorm disruptive solutions in the development sector with thought leaders and social entrepreneurs at Harvard.”

MICAH MACFARLANE, who co-founded the Clinton Health Access Initiative's global tuberculosis program, designed and launched health investments as a specialist with the Asian Development Bank, and negotiated price reductions for medicines and diagnostics as a principal with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Most recently, he led the commercialization strategy for a novel router that will accelerate diagnoses in rural labs. After HBS, he wants to “develop better models to incentivize and sustain innovation for low income settings.”

PRATIK MATAI, who comes from Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, where he led due diligence and capacity building for nonprofits, as well as the Dasra Adolescents Collaborative, working towards education, health and empowerment outcomes for five million girls in India. Matai looks forward to the HBS experience as one that will “accelerate my journey to bringing about large-scale impact in the development sector.”

PEGGY OCHOLA, who is founder of PACE, which serves students in under-resourced schools in informal settlements and rural areas in Nairobi. Since its inception in 2013, PACE has reached 10,000 students with learning support services each week. For her work, Ochola was named one of Kenya’s Top 40 under 40 women by the Business Daily in 2015. She says, “Because of this fellowship, I will be better positioned to succeed as a leader in serving and uplifting my society.”

SOPHIA RICHTER, who previously was Assistant Vice President of Strategy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where she developed initiatives to grow New York City's innovation economy, including a $30 million program to train tech talent for cybersecurity jobs. After graduation, she plans to work in the urban technology field and then return to the public sector by “letting my mission to make cities more vibrant and equitable lead the way.”

EMILY SCHLICHTING, who brings public and nonprofit health care experience from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Blue Cross Blue Shield Nebraska. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Health Care in 2017. Schlichting is a joint degree student at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, and through private sector exposure, aims to complete “the trifecta (cost, access, quality) necessary to lead effective health care reform efforts in the U.S.”

VIRIA VICHIT-VADAKAN, an experienced entrepreneur and educator, who previously worked at IDEO.org, Ashoka Foundation, and Learn Corporation in Thailand. As chief strategy officer at Learn Corporation, which increases equity and accessibility to quality education for all children, she successfully bridged the partnership with the Ministry of Education, leading universities, and international foundations to expand the organization’s impact to reach one million students. According to Vichit-Vadakan, the Goldsmith Fellowship provides “an incredible opportunity to share my experiences and knowledge and exchange ideas with like-minded leaders.”

MANDY ZHANG, who came to HBS from Venture Avenue Consulting in Beijing, where she brings experience in social impact sector capacity building, consulting, and impact investing. She also served as the COO for the Social Innovation Hub, the first social enterprise incubator in Beijing, and as Executive Board Member for HK+Acumen, whose mission is to foster an interconnected community of global citizens equipped with the moral leadership needed to meet the complex challenges of our time. Her goal after HBS is to “use philanthropic capital and business approaches to create sustainable social impacts in China.”