Alumni Spotlight
Executive Education Alumni take lessons from HKS classrooms and make meaningful changes and improvements in their communities,
organizations and lives. Here are a few examples of Alumni who are making an impact.
Video Profile of Harvard Kennedy School Alumni
Joseph Pfeifer, Senior Executives in State and Local Government 2006 and MC/MPA 2008, was the first fire chief on the scene at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Today, he is the Chief of Counterterrorism and Emergency Preparedness for the New York City Fire Department. In this film, Pfeifer talks about attending the Executive Education course for Senior Executives for State and Local Government at Harvard Kennedy School and, later, returning for his MPA degree, and the key role his Harvard Kennedy School training has played in his career.
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/multimedia/joseph-pfeifer
Ernie Almonte:
Emphasizing the "P" in CPA
By Matt Kohut
Ernie Almonte always starts his speeches with his business card. "How many of you have a business card in your wallet or pocket?" he asks an audience of his colleagues, waving his own card at them. "The most important part is on the back. My core values are listed there: integrity, reliability, independence and accountability."
The last word—accountability—offers the only clue to his profession. Almonte, the Auditor General for the state of Rhode Island, is the first government official elected to serve as chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in its hundred-plus year history. Since his election, he has been reminding his colleagues that the middle letter in "CPA" stands for "public," and that accountants have a responsibility to serve the public interest. "As CPAs, we are really in the trust business," he says.
That trust is more important now than ever, he says. CPAs have a vital role to play in guiding the United States out of its current financial crisis and assessing the potential impact of proposed regulatory reforms. "CPAs are the objective experts of finance. We have the integrity and discipline to communicate the reality of the situation."
Almonte credits his experience in the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program as a transformative experience that prepared him for a leadership role in his profession. When speaking to colleagues, he regularly shares lessons learned from Professor Marty Linsky about the distinction between authority and leadership. "We can have all the knowledge in the world, and hold the most senior leadership position, but if we sit back and do nothing, we are not exercising leadership." His experience in Executive Education was so powerful that he came back. Almonte was awarded the Hassenfeld Family Foundation Public Service Fellowship and attended Innovations in Governance in 2007. "What I'm trying to do in my job is to help agencies be innovative," he says. "I'm trying to get people to think differently."
One of his top priorities during his one-year term as chair of the AICPA is the establishment of a leadership academy for CPAs with three to eight years of experience. "I want to help the next generation of leaders," Almonte says. Half of the participants in the first class will be drawn from groups that have been underrepresented in the leadership of the accounting profession. "The big thing I'm trying to do is use the skill sets I have to encourage and inspire future CPAs to use their skills to help set our nation on a path to success. We can do it."
Tell us about how your Executive Education experience has helped you make an impact. Send your story, via e-mail,
to ksg_exec_alum@ksg.harvard.edu.