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When Ann M. Fudge graduated from Harvard Business School in 1977, she was one of twenty African-American students in her class. In the Class of 2002 that number has tripled and the African-American Student Union's annual conference—once small enough to fit into an HBS classroom—has moved to the roomier venue of the Cambridge Marriott Hotel, where Fudge was the luncheon keynote speaker.
As it happens, Fudge serves on the board of Marriott International and several other large corporations, including General Electric, where she held her first job before arriving at HBS. "Talk about coming full circle!" Fudge laughed. Over the course of her career, Fudge advanced from marketing assistant to marketing director at General Mills before moving to Kraft Foods, where she was executive vice president until early 2001. Reflecting on the past year—much of it spent touring the world with her husband—Fudge said, "Looking around this room fills me with an incredible amount of pride and belief in the future. I feel like I can stay on sabbatical forever!"
| The real wealth is family. The true currency is love and friendship. |
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— Ann Fudge, Kraft Foods |
Honesty, integrity and respect
Sharing some of her newfound perspective with the audience at the February 23
conference, Fudge commented, "I realized I could live a full life as a
wife, mother, and businessperson with no title and no company affiliation."
Whatever one's goal may be, she added, don't forget that the journey is just
as important as the endpoint—and don't compromise on values along the way.
"Hold onto honesty, integrity, and respect—for yourself and everyone else," Fudge said. "The relationships you form with other people will always come back in your life." Material goods are all well and good, she continued, and it's nice to go shopping once in a while without looking at the price tag first, but the value of "stuff" doesn't last. "What happens to it all?" she asked. "The real wealth is family. The true currency is love and friendship."
When she was a child, her family had to consider whether or not a hotel or restaurant would serve them, Fudge recalled. "Yes, we've made progress," she told the group. "We don't have to think about those issues now." With this freedom—and the opportunity to succeed in corporate America—comes the responsibility to do good, continued Fudge, a longtime supporter of numerous civic programs, including Habitat for Humanity and the Boys & Girls Club of America. "We have so much power to make a difference," she said. "Sometimes we just need a little push."
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