A huge thank you to Fletcher alumni for joining us recently to share their experiences and insights into their very different paths for success in finance.
A great turnout for our semi-annual MIB/GBA Connections event, a virtual gathering designed to bring together students and alumni from Fletcher’s two business programs.
A special thanks to the Fletcher alumni Celeste Le Roux, Kelsey Aulakh, Chelsey Evans, Mohit Saini and Warren Sakey along with faculty member Professor Kenneth Pucker to their contributions to our student panel focused on sustainability challenges.
In the aftermath of World War II, in 1947, the US War Department was renamed and restructured into the Department of Defense. On September 5th, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War as a secondary title.
What’s in a name? That question animated a spirited debate at The Fletcher School, where experts and more than 50 students gathered to consider whether the United States of America’s Department of Defense should be renamed the Department of War.
The Fletcher 2026 D-Prize contest is now open! Ready to use your entrepreneurial spirit to help tackle poverty? Start designing a new venture that will solve one of the D-Prize challenges and scale up distribution in the developing world.
On Friday, September 5, 2025 we welcomed the newest group of MIB students in an annual tradition – the Boston Harbor Dinner cruise. Lovely weather, great food and lively conversation amid the beautiful backdrop of the Boston skyline made this a night to remember! A warm welcome to all our new and returning students and wishing everyone great success for the 2025-2025 academic year.
On a typical morning at Profitas, Joaquin Martinez Alban F’26 opened a dozen tabs across his screen – Ecuador’s major dailies, government gazettes, wire services, and ministerial websites. “You always have to be very attentive to what is happening politically,” he said. “What ministers are doing, what agencies are doing, what Congress is doing, what legislative commissions are doing.”
Raised in southern New Hampshire, Grace Valvano grew up outdoors, riding horses and watching winters turn erratic. Those early signs of climate change spurred her interest in sustainability.
A self-contradictory mix of U.S. policies may already be stimulating Chinese AI. U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America’s AI Action Plan” breaks from AI policies of the past. The goal is AI acceleration by any means possible to beat America’s nemesis: China. The White House claims that the plan was immediately hailed across the technology industry.
In rural Punjab, Pakistan a centuries-old tradition meets 21st-century innovation. Dure Nayab F25’s Matka harnesses the humble clay pot as the foundation for an affordable, sustainable water filter.
From Madrid to Geneva, Zurich to Paris and Amsterdam to finally Frankfurt, Christoph Schmid F96 traveled across Europe in just two weeks, enticing pension funds and asset managers to invest in his new venture, Jazztel. “You start to wonder if you have already told the joke for that slide or not,” he mused, reflecting on
An MIB and MALD student collaboration creates a lasting platform for global innovations at Fletcher When Huiyang (Sophie) Hu F25 arrived at The Fletcher School as a Master of International Business student, she saw an opportunity. Despite Fletcher’s strong foundation in policy and international affairs, she could not find a student-led platform for discussing and
Investment banker Shrinal Sheth spearheaded new principles for corporations around social and environmental issues; now she’s driving capital to sustainable investments
The first call from a mobile phone was made 50 years ago. Since then, the cellular phone has gone from a communicator to a life assistant. Following The Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC) at The Fletcher School’s open house on October 12, a panel discussion was held to celebrate a watershed moment in
How successfully can financial literacy help women establish future savings accounts, microlending, and insurance in Bali, Indonesia lifting them out of poverty? That is the premise of my proposal for a women-run and women-serving bank that includes lending services, savings accounts, insurance policies for emergencies, childcare, and financial literacy courses, to be located in the
Entrepreneur Naman Shrivastava (MIB 22) tackles environment, energy and education. Recent Fletcher alumni Naman Shrivastava (MIB 22) is something of an expert juggler. On one hand, he advises government leaders on energy sustainability. On the other, he leads an entrepreneurial social impact venture that facilitates training young professionals for careers in management consulting, product management
By Aanchal Manuja On October 6, Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context and the Center for International Law and Governance co-hosted a new edition of “Fletcher Reads the Newspaper.” Honoring Fletcher’s tradition of interdisciplinary study, the event featured a lively and dynamic dialogue among professors from multiple disciplines and students to answer the
Brennan Murray, MIB 2022, Summer Analyst @ Tufts University Investment Office We often hear the phrase ‘Make your passion your pay check’, but more often than not, it is a hard goal to achieve. Here at Fletcher and the IBGC, our students have been repeatedly seen to achieve this goal. What’s their secret sauce, you
Ken Pucker, Senior Lecturer, Fletcher School at Tufts University and his colleague Andrew King from Boston University, recently published an article in GreenBiz discussing Stuart Kirk, Head of Responsible Investments for HSBC Bank, thoughts on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing.
What happens when you put four intelligent women from around the world together on a team to tackle a sustainable investing challenge? These Fletcher School students took second place among more than 75+ University teams, 250 students from 35 different countries in the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge. By Sarah Foote Each year Morgan Stanley
Ukraine’s tech outsourcing sector, one of Europe’s largest, has adapted nimbly to the war. In his latest blog post for Foreign Policy Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business, writes about Ukraine’s resiliency during the ongoing war. Ukraine has one of the largest tech sectors in the world and with government tax breaks, and contingency plans
To bring attention to the technology companies that are located and continue to work in Ukraine, and to help the economy of the third largest sector, tech and IT, Bhaskar Chakravorti Dean of Global Business and Executive Director, Fletcher’s Institute for Business, speaks with industry leaders with Sergiy Fitsak and Lyubomyr Nykyforuk of Softjourn. Softjourn
By Miriam Silverman Israel, MALD’24 On Thursday, April 14, the Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC) had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Paul Toldalagi, FinTech CEO, Advisor and Board Member of L4S Corporation to campus to discuss trends in the emerging FinTech industry and the impact of FinTech on the traditional financial sector.
By Garima Gupta & Professor Patrick Schena The pandemic and open military conflict are non-market risks to which institutional investors, including asset owners, until recently have had little practical exposure. These have arrived abruptly on-scene and today occupy considerable investor time and resource to manage. Climate change, social disruption, and global challenges surrounding transparency and
In his latest article for Indian Express, Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business and Executive Director, Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context writes about the future of Twitter should Elon Musk buy the social media giant.
By Miriam Silverman Israel, A’24 On Monday, April 4, the IBGC hosted a special edition of “Fletcher Reads the Newspaper” where current students and faculty welcomed several prospective students who were visiting campus as part of Admitted Student Day. In typical Fletcher fashion, the event featured professors from a range of disciplines to discuss a
Bhaskar Chakravorti writes: It is an oxymoron. Parallels between Russia’s and India’s attempts to shake free of US Big Tech’s hegemony are worrying Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business and Executive Director, Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context writes of how India and Russia’s efforts to steer clear of the US’s technology domination
In this podcast with Bloomberg Businessweek Podcast Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, discusses how the war in Ukraine is impacting the technology sector.
Russia has one of the world’s largest economies but many global companies have ceased doing business there due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 400 organizations have left Russia already – with just a few companies still conducting business in the country. The Russian market represents only a small part of business for these large conglomerates,
In his most recent article for Harvard Business Review, Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School Bhaskar Chakravorti writes about how the COVID-19 pandemic could have been the turning point where artificial intelligence (AI) made good on its potential to help the world at a time when the world needed it most. Did AI
By Sarah Foote On March 1, Deltan Dallagnol, a former federal prosecutor from Brazil spoke via Zoom to students at the Fletcher School as part of The Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC) Speaker Series about the work he completed as the leader of the biggest anti-corruption investigation in Brazil known as Car
In his latest article for BusinessWorld Fletcher Dean of Global Business, Bhaskar Chakravorti writes how the invasion of Ukraine has had an impact on the tech industry. The US relies on the neon from Ukraine to make semiconductors how will this affect the tech industry going forward? Many fortune 500 companies use Ukrainian IT services.
By Garima Gupta MIB ’22, Randeep Sudan, Oleg Petrov In this post for World Bank Blogs, Garima Gupta MIB ’22, and her co-authors discuss metaverse. What exactly is metaverse and what opportunities does metaverse offer in underdeveloped countries with regards to health, education, and urban development? Although new, can metaverse gain momentum and reshape the
After Big Tech steps in to cut off Russia in wake of Ukraine invasion, experts say it was an easy call because Russia spends so little on a global scale, but could trap Apple and others when and if a larger customer like China makes a similar move In this MarketWatch report, Dean of Global
Managers of ESG investments create false hope, exaggerate outperformance, and contribute to the delay of long-past-due regulatory action. By Andrew A. King and Kenneth P. Pucker Read Ken Pucker’s latest Institutional Investor article on ESG investing. The article addresses the premise that ESG investing delivers better returns than other types of investing while helping improve
In his Washington Post Op-Ed piece, Dean of Global Business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Bhaskar Chakravorti writes about how the energy and commodities markets have taken a hit since Russia invaded Ukraine. Chakravorti writes of how the tech industry will be the next to suffer because of the large tech talent pool
In this Bloomberg Businessweek podcast, Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, discusses the global technology implications of the war in Ukraine.
Dean of Global Business at the Fletcher School Bhaskar Chakravorti is quoted in this Protocol Enterprise article on U.S. chip sanctions against Russia. Will supply and demand will impact the sector?
By Eric Flood, MIB ’22 At Fletcher, David Folsom, MALD ’22, and I focus on International Finance, which makes remittances an unsurprising interest area for us. The global remittance market was valued at ~700B USD in 2020, quickly growing every year. Not only is the market substantial, but it carries issues with regulatory compliance, human
By Adam Basciano, GBA ’22 Adam Basciano is a graduate from the Fletcher School’s Master of Global Business Administration program. He works in global business advisory and is based in Washington, DC. He is the co-founder and former director of IPF Atid, an international network of Middle East peacebuilders. Fletcher’s new Global Business Administration program
On May 29, 2022, Fletcher students will participate in an 8-day whirlwind tour of Israel and Palestinian territories as part of the 2022 Fletcher Israel Trek, led and designed by Fletcher students Alfred Sogja, Evan Fontana, Katya Mayerson, Juliana Rordorf, and Frank Sobcak. The aim of the trek is to introduce students to Israel and
Semiconductor blockades are powerful sanctions—but may not prove effective with Russia. By Bhaskar Chakravorti In his latest article for Foreign Policy Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy writes of the poker game the U.S. and Russia are playing over the possible invasion of Ukraine. Is
Achievements in Spite of Opportunities Missed By Ramsha Hameed, MIB ’23 In my first semester at Fletcher, I participated in a negotiation simulation as part of the Sustainable Development Diplomacy course taught by Professor Mihaela Papa, where a group of eight students had to decide on a shared common resource, which made me realize how
By Bhaskar Chakravorti Fletcher School’s Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti in an article for Foreign Policy discusses ways big technology companies can fix their diversity hiring problems. Chakravorti writes about Twitter’s recent work to hire a more diverse workforce that included an increase in the hiring of African American employees from 6.9 percent to
By Mohit Saini, Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy Candidate, 2021 In August 2020, I conducted independent research in India to learn how the country’s impact investors understand and measure ‘impact’. I published the detailed insights on the University of Michigan’s NextBillion in an article titled ‘Does ‘Impact’ Lie in the Eyes of Investors in
Kenneth Pucker, a senior lecturer at the Fletcher School, had an article published in Harvard Business Review called the ‘Myth of Sustainable Fashion.’ In this article, Pucker writes how the fashion industry says they are sustainable – making clothing that is marked carbon positive or made from vegetables or recycled running shoes. But, all the
Fringe players take on Big Tech, governments start regulating, and AI could finally prove its worth. Fletcher’s Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti recently had an article published on Foreign Policy’s website discussing the three major tech trends to watch this year. The first trend, Chakravorti says, is that new, smaller players will take on
Mark Attia, MIB ’15, Assistant Secretary at The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office for Administration & Finance, recently co-authored a book chapter with the Governor of Massachusetts and fellow Fletcher School alum, Jim Peyser, MALD ’82, the Massachusetts Secretary of Education. The book Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships Are Advancing Economic Mobility highlights 19 case
In his most recent article published by Harvard Business Review, Fletcher’s Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti discusses the top 50 cities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) talent. With his co-author’s Chakravorti writes about the need for a more diverse workforce − with a wide range of perspectives to make sure that AI is built and
Every year New America publishes release their most responsible asset allocator report. This report ranks the world’s top sovereign wealth funds as well as government pension funds on their responsible investment practices. As in the past, this year’s study was developed in partnership with Fletcher School Professor Patrick Schena, Co-head of SovereigNeT. Research for the
Fletcher adjunct professor Thomas Hout writes about, “A New Approach to Rebalancing the U.S-China Trade Deficit” in his article published by Harvard Business Review. Trade tariffs have not loosened the US trade deficit with China. The US needs to rethink ways to tackle this growing problem and rebuild domestic production. China currently sells four times
Fletcher’s team of five students (Mary Menzemer MIB ’22, Evan James Fontana MIB ’22, Clarisse Alpaert MALD ’22, Gaurav Sharma MALD ’23, and Jacqueline Balletto MIB ’22) took first place in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Emerging Markets Institute’s global business case competition on Friday, November 5, 2021. Typically held in Ithaca, NY,
By David Folsom, MALD ’22 Over the last several months, Eric Flood and I have been developing a new way for migrant workers to send money back home to their families; a process commonly referred to as “sending remittances.” While companies like Western Union have dominated the remittance market for decades, new technology built on
Emma Stevenson, MALD ’23 On Wednesday, October 20, the IBGC hosted the 18th installment of the “Fletcher Reads the Newspaper” series, which engages Fletcher’s interdisciplinary experts, students, faculty, and alumni, in a discussion surrounding a current news topic. The news topics often have complex, interdisciplinary debates surrounding them, making them the ideal catalysts for discussion among the Fletcher community, as well as
Master of International Business (MIB) candidate Garima Gupta recently co-authored a piece for World Bank Blogs on the digital and gendered divides exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the blog, Garima and her fellow co-authors, Kate Gromova and Reyn Anderson, explain that the pandemic highlighted how critical digital technologies are in today’s interconnected world. They
This decade’s Indian national census will be the first to be carried out digitally, explains BBC Sounds Podcast host Gareth Mitchell. While the plan may simplify the collection of census data in the country, COVID-related delays have slowed its progress and there are growing concerns about its accuracy. Fletcher’s Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti
Excerpt from “As Facebook faces fire, U.S. laws protecting kids online languish behind Europe”, Bhaskar Chakravorti, MarketWatch Facebook Inc. faces another tongue-lashing on Thursday in the halls of the U.S. Congress, but little can be done until Congress updates U.S. law on kids and online services. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, was passed in 1998
In his latest article in The Indian Express, Fletcher Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti explains that the last thing India can afford is a bubble that bursts and for capital, talent, and technology to take flight and seek refuge elsewhere. Excerpt taken from “Indian tech unicorns are gaining at China’s expense. Is this a
By Alfred Sogja September 11, 2021 Three decades after the fall of communism, Albania has been transformed. It is a responsive democracy and a modern market economy, and last year the European Union finally began formally discussing potential accession. But Albania, like many other former communist countries, remains plagued by high youth unemployment. A new
Fletcher Master of International Business Alumnus Imad Ahmed (F’11) published a book titled “The Political Economy of Hydropower Dependant Nations.” The book aims to inform better energy policy in hydropower-dependent countries which are vulnerable to climate shocks. Using Zambia as a case study, Ahmed focuses on the impact of increasing energy insecurity as global warming affects
Investors are finally taking environmental, social, and governance investment seriously, but as currently practiced, most ESG investing delivers little to no social or environmental impact, says Fletcher senior lecturer Kenneth Pucker in his recent article in Institutional Investor. Pucker explains that despite the progress made in ESG investing, it will soon become clear that the
New research from The Regulation of International Supply Chains (RISC), an academic research project funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark, sheds light on how social sustainability issues — such as working conditions, occupational health, and safety — are governed in the Bangladesh ready made garment (RMG) industry. By looking at the many initiatives
Despite our enormous dependence on technology, which has increased over the past few years, people have grown more skeptical of Big Tech companies. The nature of this distrust is different depending on where you’re located and what other social demographics you fit into, says Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School and
As a part of Nasdaq’s “World Reimagined” series, Bhaskar Chakravorti and Ajay Banga discuss the importance of building a more digitally inclusive world, and what barriers need to be addressed in doing so. Today’s increasingly digital world brings with it possibilities to create a more inclusive and accessible global economy. But, unless action is taken
Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School, explains how misinformation spreads on social media platforms and discusses the very real and, in some cases, dire consequences of this. Dean Chakravorti also explains how certain demographics of the population may be especially vulnerable to consuming misinformation online. Listen to the iHeart Radio podcast
Bhaskar Chakravorti writes: Nurtured by repressive governments and with exports to other governments aspiring to similar heights of repression, the global surveillance industry is booming.
Bhaskar Chakravorti is interviewed on Bloomberg Baystate Business about which parts of the United States are most vulnerable to misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.
Bhaskar Chakravorti is quoted in The Wall Street Journal about Big Tech’s talent recruitment advantages with the increase in “work from anywhere” policies.
Bhaskar Chakravorti shares key findings from new research from Digital Planet, which analyzes digital inequalities across the 50 U.S. states, in Harvard Business Review.
Bhaskar Chakravorti was interviewed on CNBC about new antitrust laws to rein in Big Tech power, including merger restrictions on the largest firms. He says that while venture capitalists are probably right that acquisition prices could slide under new merger restrictions, entrepreneurs will still have a drive to innovate. Excerpt from “Start-ups will suffer from
An article by Bob Zukis in Forbes discusses the prominence of the global digital economy, and argues that while it is a facet in today’s world it is not well defined, understood, or easily measurable. Zukis also argues that the digital economy is not evenly distributed around the world, and that there are digital “haves
