The Consortium Grows Again: Kellogg Becomes 23rd Member B-School

Kellogg School of Management is the 23rd member of The Consortium, which has nearly doubled its membership in the last 10 years. Kellogg photo

2022 has been a memorable year for the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. The nonprofit dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in American business and business schools welcomed Stanford Graduate School of Business as the organization’s 22nd member in the second month of the year; in the second-to-last, another member of the M7 has signed up: Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

The Consortium announced the addition of Kellogg to its ranks Thursday (November 17). Now with 23 elite business schools among its membership and 1,000 current students, the nonprofit is the nation’s largest diversity network that links top-tier students to MBA programs and offers merit-based scholarships.

“We are thrilled to partner with The Consortium to advance its mission, which reflects our commitment to fostering an environment of exemplary diversity, equity and inclusion,” says Kellogg Dean Francesca Cornelli. “Kellogg has a great responsibility — and a distinctive ability — to shape inclusive leaders who demonstrate empathy and lead with principle. This begins with ensuring Kellogg’s community encompasses diverse backgrounds and that our school is a place where students are empowered to bring their full selves.”

CONSORTIUM HAS SUPPORTED MORE THAN 10,000 MBA STUDENTS SINCE 1966

Peter Aranda, executive director and CEO of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management: “We believe Kellogg has much to contribute to, as well as much to gain from, helping advance The Consortium’s mission to ensure equal opportunity in graduate management education and American business.”

The Consortium is on a roll with new memberships — before Stanford and Kellogg, its newest member school, in 2021, was Columbia Business School, another of the vaunted M7 schools. The Consortium’s full membership includes UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business, Yale School of Management, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, the University of Washington Foster School of Business, Emory University Goizueta Business School, Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, and Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business — as well as the original three member schools, Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School, Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Business School.

The Consortium’s mission since its founding at those three B-schools 1966 has been the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in graduate business education and American business. The nonprofit works with top-ranked MBA programs around the country to increase the ranks of under-represented minorities in business education and corporate leadership, recruiting qualified U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents for graduate business education; it has supported more than 10,000 MBA students across more than 50 years. Most candidates recruited by The Consortium receive full-tuition, merit-based fellowships to the MBA programs they attend.

DELIVERING ‘MUTUAL & MEANINGFUL GOALS’

Kellogg’s Crystal Fazal: “The culture of collaboration at Kellogg transcends the walls of our classrooms.”

Under Aranda’s leadership, The Consortium has nearly doubled in the size of its membership, growing from 12 schools a decade ago. And it has flourished in other ways, raising more than $600 million — a quadrupling of revenue from $14 million to $56 million annually. The organization’s incoming classes have also tripled in size, from 200 to more than 600 students a year. Corporate sponsorships have grown as well, with more than 100 Fortune 500 companies supporting the organization’s mission.

“We are excited to welcome Kellogg School of Management as our 23rd member school, knowing that it is deeply committed to the cause of diversity, inclusion and belonging,” says Consortium Executive Director and CEO Peter J. Aranda, III. “We believe Kellogg has much to contribute to, as well as much to gain from, helping advance The Consortium’s mission to ensure equal opportunity in graduate management education and American business.

“Through collaboration with Dean Francesca Cornelli and her team, we look forward to a successful partnership that will deliver mutual and meaningful goals.”

KELLOGG TO RECRUIT FIRST CONSORTIUM CLASS IN AUGUST 2023

For its part, Kellogg is not new to the promotion of diversity. The school has launched initiatives in recent years that include “a holistic diversity recruitment strategy, a diversity speaker series, a monthly DEI award for staff, and a multi-year framework to create a more inclusive student experience across all programs,” according to a news release. Kellogg will begin recruiting its first class of Consortium members in August of 2023.

In a blog post announcing Kellogg’s membership in The Consortium, Crystal Fazal, Kellogg’s director of diversity admissions, credits the school’s Black and Hispanic students with spurring Kellogg to join The Consortium:

“Through this partnership, Kellogg is furthering this mission and its commitment to creating a more inclusive and equitable student experience where students feel they show up authentically and unapologetically. Continuing to uphold a high level of achievement, Kellogg will extend its dedicated network including career counseling, personal support, academic planning and career placement assistance to Consortium Fellows.

“It was as a result of the school’s own long-standing partnership with student club leaders from our Black Management and Hispanic Management Associations that we were able to make significant strides in bringing this partnership to fruition. The culture of collaboration at Kellogg transcends the walls of our classrooms and helps to chart the future of Kellogg and its programs through these types of efforts.”

DON’T  MISS THE CONSORTIUM GETS A 22ND MEMBER: STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS and THE TOP HBCU FEEDERS TO U.S. MBA PROGRAMS