On behalf of all of us at the Drucker School – faculty, staff, alumni, and current students – A warm welcome to entering students.

You are part of a remarkably talented and diverse entering class of students here at Drucker. You are about to become part of a remarkable and unique educational experience.

We call ourselves not just a “B” school but also an “M” school and an “L” school – not just a business school but, rather, a school of management and leadership. Yes, we will train you with the skills to succeed in business. But we will also provide you an opportunity to become an effective manager and an ethical leader. Institutions in every sector – business, government, nonprofits, even educational institutions – desperately need what you will possess. From here, you will do well; we also hope that you will do good. If you take advantage of everything Drucker has to offer, you will not only be analytical but also creative, focused and reflective, confident and purposeful.

So, please, take advantage of this exceptional journey. Explore and participate actively in this wonderful Drucker School community.

You will find that faculty are accessible … staff that are here to serve … alumni who want to help you find that great job upon graduation … and other students from whom you can learn.

You are among the smartest and most accomplished entering students in memory. Average GMAT scores for entering MBAs are up 30 points from last year. Mean GRE Quantitative scores for entering FEs are over 780.

But those are just the impressive numbers.

It’s the quality of your classmates and the values of this institution that truly set us apart.

Let me give you just a flavor for what’s cooking here at Drucker and the sorts of opportunities that await you. This is simply a sampling. Stay current by consulting our website and by looking for other notices.


• For the first time, entering MBAs this year will enroll in a gateway course entitled “The Drucker Difference.” Here you will get to see and meet the entire core faculty in one integrated learning experience built around the teaching and research of Peter Drucker, the most influential management thinker of all time.

• FE students will be taking courses from a new member of our faculty, Professor Cornelis Los (Ph.D from Columbia), who has an impressive record of intellectual and professional accomplishments, including teaching stints in Almaty, Kzakhstan, at Kent State, Ohio, in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia, in Singapore, and at Columbia University and Baruch, Hunter and City Colleges in New York City; professional experience as Chief U.S. Economist of ING Bank, Senior Economist of Nomura Research Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and 35 original articles on economics and finance in referred journals, five books, eight other book chapters and 13 conference article

• This fall, during Drucker Day, you will hear from two of the leading management thinkers of our time – Prof. Warren Bennis of USC and Prof. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School. Forbes magazine describes Warren Bennis as “the dean of leadership gurus,” and the Financial Times calls him “the professor who established leadership as a respectable academic field.” Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the author or co-author of 16 books (including “When Giants Learn to Dance” and “Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin and End”), and is the recipient of 22 honorary degrees. Rosabeth will be discussing her latest book, “America the Principled: Six Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again.”

• This spring we will bring to the campus our first two Distinguished Drucker Fellows in Residence. Prof. Ikujiro Nonaka of Berkeley and Hitotsubashi universities is arguably the world’s leading academic authority on innovation and creativity, and Sir Charles Handy of England is one of the co-founders of the London Business School and someone considered by many as “the Peter Drucker of Europe.”

• Our Drucker School Student Association has active chapters of a number of clubs and provides good career networking opportunities as well as just plain fun social events.

• We host a Henry Kravis Entrepreneurship Award competition that you may want to consider entering. There are new “trandisciplinary” courses offered by CGU that you might want to check out and enroll in.

• We are near gorgeous beaches and, in just four months time, great skiing. Claremont itself, this lovely city of trees and PhDs, was named as one of the five best places to live in America by Money Magazine last month.


So enjoy. Take in as much of it as you can.

We will work you hard and we expect you to take this educational experience seriously and with integrity. Our distinguished faculty love teaching as well as researching. They expect you to come to class well prepared and prepared to discuss and actively engage in the learning process.

If you approach this privileged time in your life with the right spirit, you are about to enter a meaningful, productive, relevant, inspiring and even transformational experience that will shape you for a lifetime.

We are delighted to welcome you to the Drucker community. Please feel free to drop by my office to introduce yourself, say hello, seek my advice or to offer a constructive suggestion.

Best wishes and good luck! 



Ira A. Jackson
Dean and Professor of Management
Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate
School of Management