The Dubin Retreat

Look at these people just working so hard. What a classic photo. Pictured left are some of my favorite people (Sushma, Alvin, Dan, Katherine, Tommy - left to right). I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with all the Dubin Fellows, past and present, at Glenn Dubin's house in the New York countryside. This was our first ever "Dubin Retreat." We have three classes now (the D1s, D2s, and D3s), with former fellows in Boston, DC, New York, Columbia, Australia, and more. People flew in from all over the world to meet, greet, reunion-ize, and develop our alumni network. And we got to spend some quality time with Glenn himself.

Just talking to Glenn, you wouldn't know he's a billionaire. Once everyone had gotten to the ranch, we sat outside for introductions, as our class had not met many of the D1 and D2s. Just chilling in the middle was our benefactor - flannel shirt, khaki pants frayed and torn at the cuffs, old sneakers. Hands on his head, leaning back. Not how I picture billionaires (I don't know how I actually picture billionaires). He's quiet, humble, a family man, and is totally involved in our fellowship, which is not the case for many of these scholarships. He has also made "The Giving Pledge," which is a campaign started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to recruit the richest people in the world to give away most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. The commitment is to give at least 50% of total wealth to charity, before or at the time of death. According to Wikipedia, 113 billionaires have made the pledge. Peeps include Ted Turner, Mark Zuckerberg, and George Lucas, among others.

That's pretty cool.

If you do get a chance, check some of these people out. I really need to start profiling some of them on this blog in the fall.

What was so awesome about the retreat was the amount of energy in the room. Everyone goes nonstop. My usual inertia was gone (by the end of the weekend I was on a "subcommittee" - SAY WHAT?!). I have been co-conspiring to build this blog into a real journalistic/opinion platform (more on that coming) with a couple of my friends, and each fellow was a valuable resource for expertise. They've started their own organizations, recruited funding, written theories of change... all working towards social progress. By the end of the third day, I was exhausted (and full of ideas). I went around promising discounted medical care as a return on their investment.

I like to poke fun at Harvard a lot, but there are some really good people around. More to come on some of these ideas later.