The Stanford Graduate School of Business Veterans Club invites you to the
2022 Military service appreciation dinner
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
6 pm - 9:30 pm
Vidalakis Dining Hall
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford, CA
Dear GSB Alum,
The GSB Veterans Club is pleased to announce that the Jack McDonald Military Service Community Dinner will once again take place in person on May 4, 2022. We invite you to save the date and plan to join us for dinner at Vidalakis Dining Hall as we honor and celebrate the experiences and sacrifices of our veterans and active-duty communities. We are also pleased to announce that we will award the Jack McDonald Military Service Appreciation Award to Dr. Melody McDonald during the dinner. Our guest speaker will be Secretary Condoleeza Rice. The event registration will follow.
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy. In addition, she is a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm.
From January 2005 to January 2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first black woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001 to January 2005, the first woman to hold the position.
Rice served as Stanford University’s provost from 1993 to 1999, during which time she was the institution's chief budget and academic officer. As Professor of Political Science, Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the university’s highest teaching honors – the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Rice has a bachelor's degree from the University of Denver; a master’s from the University of Notre Dame; and a Ph.D., from the University of Denver, all in political science.
melody mcdonald
After Professor Jack McDonald, Melody’s husband of 45 years, passed away, having taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for 50 years, Melody decided it was her special mission to continue working with the Veteran students at the business school, doing her best to carry on Professor McDonald’s legacy. He had worked with the Veteran students and also with the Veterans making the transition from Military Service to Civilian life. Professor McDonald, who had been a Veteran himself, knew the challenges they had to overcome.
Melody spent time having lunches, dinners, and meetings where they discussed jobs, interviews, life in general, and other specific issues. She has continued these activities for the last four years since his death even though spending the last eight months in a wheelchair, when the future of walking was not a likely prospect. She continues her work still with the Veterans with great enthusiasm and is very appreciative of the opportunity to be a part of their lives. “They have done so much for us, it is the least I can do for them.”
From February 2002 through February 2005, she held an appointment from the President of the United States to represent the interests of the general public as Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. She served as a Managing Director for RCM/Allianz Global Investors for 29 years. She retired after 31 years in January 2018. She now serves as Honorary Chair for the Jack McDonald Investment Course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition to her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, Dr. McDonald received a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, graduating as the Class Marshal (Harvard’s equivalent to the Arbuckle Award). Her music interests include piano, baroque music, and jazz.